It Came from Lucina's Head
by Smash King24
Summary: After staying up late one night to watch a scary movie, Lucina finds herself having reoccurring nightmares about a deranged maniac trying to murder her in her sleep. Every morning she's waking up with cuts on her body, but her friends fear that she might be doing it to herself. Contains a blend of horror, humor, mystery, romance, and slice-of-lifeness. RobinxLucina FalconxLucina
1. Movie Night

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I've been wanting to write a story centered around Lucina since her announcement in Smash 4. Unfortunately for her, it had to be another Horror story.

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><p>Chapter 1: Move Night<p>

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><p>"Alright boys and girls! It's time to sit down and shut up 'cause tonight is Captain Falcon movie night!"<p>

The F-Zero racer posed heroically in front of the flat screen TV with a colorful DVD in his hand. His audience, consisting of Ike, Lucina, and Pikachu, just stared at him unenthusiastically.

"Are you going to dramatically announce it like this every time you get to pick the movie?" asked Lucina seriously.

Falcon was taken aback at her question, his mouth falling slightly agape in surprise.

"Hey! Don't think that just because you're a newcomer it means you can go ordering me around like that!" he said.

"Oh sorry," she said, a bit of embarrassment on her face. "I didn't mean to offend you in any way."

Ike rolled his eyes. It looks like it was going to take some time before Lucina would get used to Captain Falcon and his usual antics.

"Chu…" muttered Pikachu, a piece of ketchup-soaked popcorn wedged in his mouth.

The four Smashers had been planning a weekly movie night every Friday of the week since the new tournament started up. Well, it was actually Captain Falcon's idea. He wanted to show Lucina how they spent their free time around the mansion. Most Smashers, they just go out on the town, or practice in the training rooms. What kind of fun was that? If Master Hand was going to make them kill each other for eight hours straight during the day, they might as well take the free time to relax.

A few weeks ago, Falcon had initially invited Lucina to join him for a movie. It wasn't just any movie either, since Falcon gave her a choice of specific movies of the Romance genre. Ike, overhearing the discussion, felt it would be in Lucina's best interest if he tagged along in case Falcon were to try anything "funny". Now, Falcon wasn't that type of guy at all, but most Smashers knew very well to never underestimate the uncanny F-Zero racer. He was one of those Smashers who a lot of people perceived to be unpredictable. Lucina, on the other hand, was kind, gentle, polite, and somewhat easily startled. With a pretty face to seal the deal, it came as no surprise to the veteran Smashers that she would be Falcon's first target to prey on. You'd think he would have learned his lesson after the incident with Samus last Valentine's Day.

"Falcon, stop," said Ike as Falcon flexed his abs at the group on the couch. "You're scaring the poor girl."

"Oh, I'm quite alright, but thank you anyway Ike," replied Lucina cheerfully. "It's nice to just sit down with a group of friends and spend time together after a hard day's brawl."

"See, she's fine!" said Falcon enthusiastically. "Trust me on this, guys. When Captain Falcon hosts a party, everyone has a good time!"

"Pi-Pikachu!" replied Pikachu seriously.

"Ok, well there was that ONE time when I accidentally set the mansion on fire," muttered Falcon. "But that was a problem with the lighting, completely out of my control!"

"Pika…"

"Hey hey!" he replied. "I don't want to hear another peep from you mister! You weren't even invited to this thing!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Ike. "You're the one who asked if he could come along."

Indeed, the only reason why Pikachu was here in the living room with them was because Falcon had noticed him strolling by some few minutes ago. With his happy-go-lucky attitude and Pikachu's cuteness, why would he not invite the little electric mouse in to join them on the festivities?

"Whatever," spat Falcon. "The point is, tonight's the third night, which mean it's MY turn to pick the movie!"

"Pika, Pikachu?" asked Pikachu.

"The first week, I picked 'Pitch Perfect'," replied Lucina, in response to Pikachu's question. "And last week, Ike picked a Jackie Chan movie… that I can't remember the title of."

"It was 'A Snake in the Eagle's Shadow'," replied Ike from the other side of the couch. "A classic kung-fu movie. And by the way, Lucina, Pikachu didn't ask you that."

"Chuuuu…" said the electric mouse disappointedly.

"Oh, I'm sorry Pikachu," replied Lucina. "I'm still getting used to how the Pokémon talk around here."

"It's okay, it takes some getting used to," said Ike with a smile.

"Hello! Are you guys gonna sit there and gawk all night or are we gonna watch this movie!?" asked Falcon, a bit of irritation in his voice.

Ike glanced at him with an unimpressive gaze.

"Falcon, you're the one standing there with the movie," he said. "Just put it on already!"

"Wait," replied Falcon. "You guys…don't want to hear what movie I picked?"

He made a sad puppy-dog face as he lifted the disc casing in front of his mouth.

"Go ahead Captain Falcon," said Lucina warmly. "We're all listening."

"I envy how you can maintain such an attitude with this guy," commented Ike from the side.

Pikachu continued to munch on his large bucket of popcorn contentedly.

"Alright folks!" began Falcon. "I stand before you tonight with one of the greatest and most terrifying Horror movies that this world (or otherwise) has ever seen! It will make your spine shudder, your teeth chatter, and your eyeballs will fall from your eye sockets in disgust at the scenes contained within the bindings of this DVD!"

"Oh my…" said Lucina in shock, partly interested and bewildered by Falcon's description.

"Will you spit it out already?" asked Ike in annoyance.

"Ladies and gentlemen," continued Falcon. "I present to you, the one, the only, 'A Nightmare on Elm Street!'"

The racer proudly held the disc above his head, striking another comical pose in the process. The version of the disc seemed to be the 1984 classic starring Heather Langenkamp and Johnny Depp.

Lucina continued to stare in wonderment, while Ike and Pikachu remained unimpressed.

"Really, 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'?" asked Ike. "I thought the only Horror movies we owned were the 'Resident Evil' ones."

"Pfft! 'Resident Evil'? Come on Ike, no one likes that series," retorted Falcon.

"Pikachu…" muttered Pikachu as he grabbed another popcorn, dipped it in his bowl of ketchup, and popped it into his mouth.

"I've never seen 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' before," said Lucina casually. "Is it scary?"

Falcon was, again, taken aback by her seemingly simple question.

"Is it scary?" he repeated. "Is it scary!? Sister, this movie is one of the scariest movies of all time! I guarantee you by the time we're done with this movie, you'll be too scared to sleep without the lights turned on. Is it scary…Sheesh, you kids I tell ya…"

"I've never seen a Horror movie before," said Lucina enthusiastically. "This should be exciting."

"Depends on your definition of 'exciting' I suppose," mumbled Ike.

"Have you seen this one, Ike?"

"No, but it won't matter anyways. There is no movie in this world that can scare me. It's all make-belief after all."

"Pi-Pikachu!" chimed Pikachu in agreement.

"Alrighty then!" replied Falcon. "Without further ado, let's dive into this!"

The racer promptly shoved the movie into Master Hand's super expensive Blu-ray disc player. He thereafter plopped his butt down on the couch between Ike and Lucina, crushing Pikachu in the process and spilling his popcorn. After receiving a few thousand volts of electricity and running back to the kitchen to grab some more popcorn, he took his spot in the middle of the couch again with Pikachu lying in Lucina's arms, the ketchup and popcorn sitting on the coffee table.

"These damn remotes never work when you need them to…" muttered the F-Zero racer and he wedged his thumbs into the buttons of the remote.

After bypassing the decade-old movie trailers and FBI content warning bullshit, 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' was finally playing on the TV. The last thing to be done was to turn off the lights, which Falcon hastily did before, yet again, reclaiming his spot on the couch.

Ike yawned to himself as Lucina stared on at the movie playing before them. Unbeknownst to the swordswoman, she would soon find out that sitting down to watch this movie would turn out to be the worst decision she'd made in the entire week.

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><p>89 minutes later…<p>

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><p>As the last of the credit score began to die down with the remaining text crawling up the screen, Lucina could only stare wide-eyed in horror at the monstrosity of a movie she had just witnessed. She shivered in distress, afraid to turn her head in any direction for fear that Freddy Krueger would be lurking in the nearby shadows. She squeezed Pikachu tightly against her body, causing the Pokémon to wake from its sleep.<p>

"Pikachu…" complained Pikachu as he tried to push himself some more breathing room.

The swordswoman, however, refused to budge from the curled-up-ball position she was in. She glanced over at her friends to see Captain Falcon leaning back against the couch with his mouth wide open and snoring loudly. Ike was also asleep, his head leaning on his propped-up fist, though he was much more silent about the matter. It seemed that Lucina was the only one who actually watched the whole movie from beginning to end. Truly, it was a traumatizing experience all in itself.

She didn't realize how tightly she was hugging Pikachu and before she knew it, the electric mouse had given off a series of sparks. She shrieked at the touch, causing Pikachu to jump onto Falcon's lap and waking him up instantly, before dashing out of the room.

"Huh what!? Who goes there!?" shouted Falcon in a daze.

He glanced around the room to see the movie on the DVD menu and a petrified Lucina staring at him. Ike began to stir awake as well from the sudden excitement.

"Ugh, what time is it?" he mumbled before pulling himself up.

Falcon continued to stare at Lucina dumbfounded, while the woman continued to stare back at him with a fearful look in her eyes. Falcon let out a huge yawn and a stretch before scratching his back.

"So, how was it?" asked Falcon nonchalantly. "What'd I tell ya, scary huh?"

Lucina just looked at him in horror, her hands cupped over her chest as scenes of knives cutting through her body played through her head. Never in her life had she seen anything so graphic, not even on the fields of battle. Mechanically, the swordswoman got up from her spot and shuffled mindlessly out of the room and back to her dorm.

"'Night, Lucina," called Ike as she left, but she made no effort to respond.

After a few moments, the blue-haired swordsman frowned at the F-Zero racer.

"What?" asked Falcon seriously.

Lucina wandered like a lost soul through the hallways of Smash Mansion, bypassing every room and door on the way. She found herself constantly glancing back and forth in the halls, trying to tell herself that the echoing noise or voices were nothing but her imagination. She could feel something following her, but she wasn't entirely sure if it was all in her head or some separate entity. Nevertheless, as soon as she made it to her room, she ran in and slammed the door shut. None of the Smashers saw her at breakfast the next day.


	2. The First Encounter

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p>Chapter 2: The First Encounter<p>

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><p>Lucina tossed and turned in her sleep restlessly. She had tried her best to calm herself down, but for some reason, her heartbeat just didn't want to let up. All she could think about were those images of people getting cut open with razor-sharp knives. She was so frightened by the ordeal that she didn't even take the time to change into her pajamas. She just hopped into bed, hid herself as deep as she could beneath the covers, and prayed that whatever was lurking nearby in those halls didn't follow her into the sanctity of her dorm room. There…<em>was<em> something following her in those halls right?

"_This is ridiculous_," she thought to herself, beneath the safety of her sheets. "_There's nothing to be afraid of. It's like Ike was saying, movies are only make-belief. They can't be real…can they?_"

She peered out from under the covers into the darkness of her room. With the moonlight shining eerily in from the balcony window, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That jacket hanging on the chair wasn't a ghoul. Those trees swaying back and forth outside weren't banshees. And that pile of books on the desk definitely was no Freddy Krueger. Hesitantly, she glanced to the mirror across from her bed to see her own scared reflection staring back at her across the room.

"_Get a grip of yourself Lucina. It's all in your head._"

"It's all in my head," she said to herself out loud, closing her eyes slowly and falling back on her pillow.

She had to admit, talking to herself really did make her feel better about the situation. Well, it did until it started raining outside and a huge thunderclap boomed over the mansion. The poor girl squeaked at the sound and dove back under her safety net of linen.

The rain started coming down in the night. It wasn't a hard rain, but the storm clouds were rolling in, and soon Lucina was finding herself with other reasons why she couldn't sleep. Thankfully, the storm was at least keeping her mind off of you know what.

"_There are no such thing as monsters, there are no such thing as monsters, there are no such thing as monsters_," she kept thinking to herself.

She didn't know why she even bothered to sit and watch that stupid movie with Falcon and Ike in the first place. Had she known what it was going to be about, she would have just got up and left right then and there. The whole experience had left a sour taste in her mouth with Horror films. With any luck, the next movie they watch would be something a little more relaxing than that. Perhaps a comedy, or a documentary, or maybe they could just sit outside and watch grass grow for an hour.

All these thoughts bouncing around her mind were not helping her situation at all. If she was going to participate in brawls the next day, she needed her sleep. It was already past midnight, which was at least two hours past her regular curfew. If she fought like crap the next morning, Captain Falcon was going to get a piece of her mind. It's not like it was his fault however since she was the one who was initially so curious about these Horror movies. There's no way in hell she'd be doing that again…

As the clock struck 1am, Lucina could finally feel herself winding down. After all the excitement and worrying, her body and mind were finally starting to call it quits. She debated whether or not she should have pulled her sword into bed with her, but in the end, she just kept repeating Ike's words of wisdom.

"_It's all make-belief. That's all it is._"

Despite the rain, she was finding it easier to fall asleep, using the raindrops against the window as some sort of tempo like a lullaby. It was strangely relaxing and reminded her of days when she and some of the other Smashers would stay indoors during rainy days and play board games that no one could ever finish in one sitting like Monopoly. There was no room to think about monsters in this setting though. Now it was just Lucina and the rain. Pit-pat. Pit-pat.

Well, it _was_ like this until an intrusive noise caught her attention.

The sound of the balcony door opening and closing caused her to open her eyes wide as she quickly sat up and glanced in direction of the source. The rain continued to fall against the window carelessly; however, she noticed the curtains along the door had been disturbed, swaying in the air as if some invisible force had nudged them. It was impossible for wind to enter the room unless the door was open, which led her to her most fearful conclusion of all.

Someone else had entered her room.

"Who goes there?" she asked, trying to maintain control of the cracking in her voice.

There was no reply, save for the dancing curtains as they slowly came to a stop. The room was too dark to see anything that wasn't near the balcony, which gave her the utmost sinking feeling in her stomach. Could it be that the sound she heard was nothing but her imagination?

She continued to scan the room, confirming if anything else had been disturbed. The jacket was still on the chair and those books were still on the desk, so whatever had slipped into the room had done so in quite the stealthiest fashion. The eerie silence responding to her question was starting to give her chills.

"_My sword…_" she thought, looking near the entrance of the room to see her sword in the weapons rack against the wall.

She was about the step off her bed and retrieve her blade, but stopped herself to inspect the carpet below. She leaned over the edge and peered beneath her bed, which thankfully revealed nothing but air and dust-bunnies. She sighed with relief as she looked back up to her weapon, but nearly cried in shock when the sword was no longer there.

"_My Falchion! Where did it?..._"

She could have sworn she saw it in the weapons rack, which was now completely empty. She distinctly remembered putting that there when she was done her training for the day, and she sure as hell remembered seeing it when she entered the room after the film. Something definitely wasn't right here.

She made an attempt to go inspect the rack, but was halted when she noticed that she could not move her feet at all. Somehow, her legs had become entangled in her own bed sheets. Not only that, but the sheets suddenly began coiling up her body, as if they were some sort of snake.

"_What's happening!?_"

She frantically tried pulling her legs free, but they wouldn't budge from their bindings. No matter how much she pulled, tore, or resisted, the blankets would not stop coming. Eventually, they had wrapped all the way around her torso, arms, and neck, constricting her into what was probably the most uncomfortable position she'd ever been in in her life. She tried to call for help, but wasn't able to get out two words before the sheets tightened on her vocal chords, choking her into submission.

"_Who is doing this!?_" she kept asking herself. "_Why is this happening!?_"

For the first time since she joined the Smash Bros., Lucina felt completely helpless. The more she struggled to resist, the more those sheets would tighten against her body. She couldn't find her sword, couldn't call for her friends, couldn't do anything to stop whatever supernatural presence was at large here. Her deepest fears had officially become reality.

"_I'm going to die. By the gods, I'm going to die._"

Tears began streaming down her face, as if the snake-like coils of the bed had squeezed them out of her. It wasn't long before she could feel her own ribcage snapping, her lungs collapsing, and her heart beating with such force that it felt like it had been set in flames.

Just as she thought it was all over, a tall figure loomed over her bedside, staring down at her with eyes that could pierce the face of the moon. The poor girl didn't know what to think as her sight was beginning to blur, her thoughts dispersing before she could even comprehend them. The figure was dark, standing almost as tall as the ceiling, or at least, that's how it looked from Lucina's point of view. Large pointed ears could be seen jutting from the sides of its head, a sickly grin spread across its sinister face like some sort of jester. Small beady eyes gazed down at her without remorse. Its body was entirely black, but it emitted some sort of violet aura that made Lucina sick to her already compressed stomach. As she coughed and gasped for breath, the other being in the room continued to stand and watch, its large grin refusing to falter in the slightest.

"Good evening, Lucina," said the ominous and distorted voice of the figure. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

The sound of the creature's voice was like nails on a chalkboard, giving Lucina the impression that this being was of an entirely different realm altogether. She maintained that notion for about a second before letting out a sharp cry as more of her soul was squeezed from her body.

"I've waited so long for this day," continued the horrifying image before her. "The day you would finally set me free." The creature raised a large demonic hand, revealing a set of razor-sharp claws. "The day…where I would finally be able to touch you."

The creature gently skimmed a claw down Lucina's cheek, causing her to internally writhe in pain. The touch of the creature was very light; however, it burned like someone had taken a hot chunk of coal to her skin. Soon, beads of blood began oozing through the skin on her cheek, forming an open cut that bled all the way down her neck, staining the sheets.

At this point, she just wanted it to be over with. Her internal organs had been compressed beyond recognition or repair, and she was in so much pain that death seemed like her only chance at salvation. Just when she was about to let go, she looked up to see the creature reel back with its huge claws, the sickly grin continuing to mock her.

"Fear is the consumer. Death is the deliverer."

She slammed her eyes shut and screamed with all her might as the array of blades swiped cleanly through her face.

Lucina shot upright in her bed, unleashing a blood-curdling scream into the dark room. She paused, panting heavily and gasping for air. She placed her hand over her chest to feel her heart beating a million miles a minute.

"_Was it all a dream?_"

She looked down at the sheets before her to find them all in place, albeit drenched in sweat. Glancing at the weapons rack showed that her Falchion was back in its place. Her reflection in the mirror across the room stared back at her with a most distressed expression. The curtains near the balcony were as motionless as the dead. It was still raining outside.

Lucina tried her best to catch her breath, but gave up halfway before falling back onto her pillow.

"_It was a dream_," she thought gratefully. "_Thank the gods._"

Even with that in mind, she still found it difficult to fall back asleep. She couldn't stop thinking about that creature that attacked her. That sinister grin, those creepy eyes, those monstrous claws that tore through her skin like paper. It made her wonder what on earth that stupid Horror movie had put into her head that night. Ike and Captain Falcon were definitely going to hear about this tomorrow.

As Lucina dozed off, the rain began to ease up to the point where the clouds had completely drifted away from the mansion. Soon, she had fallen into a deep sleep, burying the memories of that horrifying encounter into the far reaches of her mind. Incidentally, she didn't notice the trail of blood trickling down her face until the next day.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Ahem. Well that got dark real quick. What do you think so far, good or should I seriously be revising where I'm going with this story?


	3. Lucina Wears Red

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p>Chapter 3: Lucina Wears Red<p>

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><p>It was around 7 in the morning when breakfast had been laid out for the Smashers in the dining room. Waddle Dees were scurrying about delivering platters, setting silverware, and picking up dirty dishes while the Smashers enjoyed their usual meals. Although some were not present, most of the fighters had gathered at the long table, eating contentedly and chatting with each other. Among these, Captain Falcon and Ike were sitting across from each other at the end near the east door, talking about the previous night's movie over some bacon and eggs.<p>

"So, what'd ya think, Ike?" asked Falcon as he chomped on a slice of bacon.

Ike was hesitant to reply as the racer had accidentally spat some food on his friend's face. The swordsman calmly wiped himself clean with a napkin.

"It had my attention for about five minutes before I got bored and fell asleep," he said casually, taking a bite out of his omelet.

The F-Zero racer seemed to have taken offense to this remark.

"Hey, that's not fair!" retorted Falcon. "I stayed up all night to watch _your_ movie! The least you could do is do the same for me!"

"It doesn't matter to me if you wanted to watch it," said Ike. "I chose that one because I like it."

Falcon tried to come up with words to respond, but only ended up pouting like a little kid before nibbling on a piece of toast. As he was doing so, another Smasher who was passing by overheard the conversation.

"Hey, how was the movie last night?" asked Link with a smile, a plate full of food in his hands.

"Why don't you ask Ike?" spat Falcon.

"It was fine, Link," replied the blue-haired swordsman. "Though I'm not sure if Lucina enjoyed it very much."

The Hylian raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"Which movie was it?" he asked.

"Some Horror one that I can't remember the name of."

"Oh for the love of-!" yelled Falcon as he raised his hands in the air, dropping a fork in the process. "It was 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'! Nightmare! On! Elm Street! It's really not that hard to remember!"

All the chatter in the room suddenly ceased, causing an unusually silence to befall the immediate area. Falcon glanced down the table to see his friends staring at him awkwardly, including the nearby Waddle Dees.

"Dammit Falcon, it's 7 in the morning!" shouted Ganondorf from the other end of the table. "Can't I get one day without you shouting obscenities!?"

"Sorry!" replied Falcon before sitting up straight and resuming his eating.

The other Smashers also went back to their food and the Waddle Dees resumed their duties. Somewhere close to middle of the table, Sonic was snickering at a pissed-of Ganondorf.

"I take it she found it a bit too intense?" asked Link, continuing the conversation where they left off.

"Pfft, you kidding?" replied Falcon. "She was fine! That girl's got more guts that you guys give her credit for."

"That movie can be unsettling for anyone who's never seen it before," muttered Ike from the side.

"Well it wasn't just us!" said Falcon. "Pikachu liked it too! Right Pikachu?"

The electric mouse sitting a few seats down glared at the F-Zero racer, its ears twitching slightly in irritation. Ike noticed some sparks jolting about on its red cheeks.

"See? Even Pikachu had a great time!" continued Falcon.

"If you say so," replied Link. "Anyway, I'm gonna go meet up with Pit and Luigi over there. I'll see you guys later."

"See ya," responded Ike before taking a swig of his orange juice.

Falcon gave a silly salute, casting the Hylian off on his merry way to the middle of the table.

"Now that I think about it," said Falcon quietly. "Lucina hasn't shown up for breakfast yet."

Ike raised an eyebrow, wondering if that last statement was intended to make him suspicious of something.

"Did you see her last night?" asked the swordsman. "She looked like she saw a ghost; her face was a white as a sheet."

"I thought her face always looked like that?"

"No Falcon, it doesn't work that way. Maybe if you took your helmet off for once you'd be able to identify colors properly."

"Hey! Don't dis the helmet!"

Falcon bopped himself in the head, the force of the gesture naturally absorbed by his trademark crash helmet.

"She's probably really tired this morning," said Ike. "Let her have her rest. She said she has a match scheduled for today, so let's just give her some space to prepare herself."

"Well fine," replied Falcon, shoving his last piece of egg into his mouth. "But so help me, if she comes crying to me that she didn't like the movie, I'm going to have to straighten her out." The racer flexed his biceps and gave a seductive smirk, which to Ike looked like a typical creepy smirk. "If you know what I mean."

Ike put down his utensils with a frown.

"Ugh… No I don't know what you mean," he replied. "And I'm not sure if I want to find out."

"What _did_ you mean, Captain Falcon?"

Both Smashers jumped at the new voice that had entered the conversation. They glanced to the side to see Lucina standing next to them at the table's end, her usual blue attire now looking more red than usual. As a matter of fact, she was dressed entirely in her red armor, but she was also wearing peculiar blue scarf around her neck that covered everything from her nose to her chin. She had small bags under her eyes, hinting that her last night was nowhere near as pleasing as she had hoped. Naturally, her initial question had been muffled by the scarf, which is what startled the Smashers in the first place.

"Oh Lucina!" exclaimed Falcon in surprise. "I didn't notice you standing there!" He paused for a moment, rubbing the back of his head and praying that he hadn't come off as a creep with his earlier remarks. "Um… What's with the scarf?"

"Oh this?" she replied innocently. "I was feeling really cold this morning, but thankfully I had one of these lying around."

She flipped the end of the scarf around in the air playfully, causing Ike and Falcon to exchange glances with each other.

"But it's the middle of summer…" said Ike.

"I'm feeling a little under the weather as well," she replied.

"Why red then? I thought you didn't like that color?"

She took a step back, hesitating slightly before coming up with a response.

"I, ugh… wanted to try something different for a change," she said. "What, I'm only allowed to wear one color of clothing?"

"Um, no I didn't mean it like that," replied Ike with a stutter. "It's just that you always wear your blue armor. We just weren't expecting this." He turned to Falcon. "Right?"

Falcon nodded, though he had a hard time covering the stupid grin on his face.

"I understand," said Lucina with a smile, though the other Smashers couldn't tell because of the scarf. "I was actually wondering if you two could meet with me in private after breakfast. I… have something I need to discuss with you."

Both the swordsman and the racer exchanged another glance with each other, their curiosity increasing with each passing second.

"Is it about the movie?" asked Ike.

The swordswoman shuffled uneasily on the spot.

"Kind of," she said. "I don't want anyone else to hear about it though. Meet me in the game room in an hour."

With that, she grabbed a plate of food from a passing Waddle Dee and scurried to the exit of the dining room. As she passed by the table, a few Smashers glanced at her, wondering why she was wearing red and why she had that ridiculous scarf on her face. A few called her name to stop her, but she continued on her way, ignoring any and all comments directed at her. She was suddenly stopped at the door when a fat Italian man walked into the room as she was leaving.

"Hmmm…" said Wario as he studied Lucina's figure from top to bottom.

Lucina backed up a bit, slightly afraid at what the yellow man could have possibly been thinking.

"Hey Lucina," he started. "Lookin' good! Wahahaha!"

The fat Smasher waddled passed the swordswoman and cheerfully made his way to the food. Lucina just shook her head in response and slipped out the door.

"Wonder what's gotten into her?" asked Falcon, chugging the final remains of his coffee.

"I don't know…" replied Ike. "But we're going to find out."

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><p>1 hour later…<p>

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><p>Ike and Falcon entered the game room on the far side of the mansion to find Lucina leaning against one of the air hockey tables. Typically, the game room never saw any action until the weekends, or Wednesday nights when Falcon, Bowser, Mario, Wario, Mr. Game &amp; Watch, and Little Mac would get together for a dozen rounds of beer pong (though it never got that far). Besides air hockey, table tennis, and foosball tables, the room also had an assortment of classic arcade machines lined up against the walls, two large flat screen televisions, every Nintendo console on the shelves (plus one Sega Genesis), and numerous tables for playing board games or card games. It was an excellent place to schedule a secret meeting since the room was always vacant in the morning.<p>

Falcon closed the door tightly behind him before joining Ike against the back of the couch, facing Lucina from across the room. Apparently, she was still wearing the scarf, and she was still dressed in the red armor.

"So what's goin' on?" asked Falcon straightforwardly.

Lucina quietly sighed to herself, somewhat unsure of where to begin.

"Okay," she started. "I had a bad dream last night."

Ike maintained a straight face, surprised that something as simple as a dream could invoke a meeting like this. Falcon, on the other hand, just scoffed.

"Oh, _this_ is what it's about?" he said unenthusiastically. "Lucina, if you weren't enjoying the movie then you should have said something!"

"It's not about that!" she shot back. The sudden change in loudness of her voice caused Ike to jump, Falcon backing down slightly. Her face turned a light shade of red as she realized how agitated she had become. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," replied Ike. "Continue."

"The dream I had last night," she said. "It felt so real. I don't know how it happened, but I can remember it so vividly even now. That never happens with dreams."

"What happened in your dream?" asked Ike.

She recalled the horrifying events that took place in her own bedroom. From the vanishing sword to the burning sensation of the monster's touch, it all came back to her in the blink of an eye.

"I was attacked," she said, "by a creature that I've never seen before. It came into my room like a phantom, silently appearing out of nowhere. It held me down against my will and began torturing me."

"Ooh, I like where this is going," muttered Falcon with a smirk.

Ike nudged him firmly in the groin, causing the F-Zero racer to whimper in response.

"It had claws like razorblades," she continued, "and emitted some kind of demonic aura that was making my vision all fuzzy."

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Lucina," said Ike all of a sudden as he put his hand up. "But before you say anymore, let me ask you this: Is this your first time experiencing a bad dream?"

Lucina looked at him with a frown. Did he think she was an idiot?

"I know what I saw," she replied. "And believe me; as much as I want to believe this was a dream, a part of me says that it wasn't."

"A part of you says so, huh?" said Falcon, arms crossed. "Well here's a newsflash for you sister. Horror movies give people nightmares. That's the point. If you watch a scary movie late at night, you're bound to have nightmares about it when you go to sleep!"

"Kind of left that part out during last night's movie description eh, Falcon?" said Ike from the side.

"I know this sounds crazy, but I'm telling you the truth," replied Lucina. "Something came into my room last night, and whatever it was, it gave me this."

She pulled the scarf down from her face, revealing a thin red line going all the way down her left cheek. Falcon flinched at the sight before realizing it was nothing but a scratch. Ike raised an eyebrow unimpressively.

"Really?" he said. "You scratched yourself?"

"I didn't scratch myself!" she replied agitatedly. "The monster that came into my room last night did this! I almost died!"

At that, Falcon nearly burst into tears of laughter.

"You almost died?" he asked. "Wow, this monster of yours sounds really dangerous. What, was he armed with toothpicks or something?"

He fought as hard as he could to hold back his laughter while the swordswoman just stared at him with a frown on her face.

"I'm telling you it really did happen!" she retorted. "The creature held me down and cut my face with its claws! It would have finished the job too had I not woken up!"

"Lucina," said Ike, putting a hand against his head, "I think you're reading way too much into this. To think that a 'monster' came out of your dream and attacked you in real life… That's just impossible." He felt bad telling her that she was going about the situation completely in the wrong manner, thus he suggested an alternative possibility. "Maybe you just scratched yourself when you were having the nightmare?"

Lucina paused, comprehending this for a moment. She hadn't even considered that she, in her period of distress, could have accidentally swiped her face with her own fingernails, thus causing the vertical wound to appear her cheek. As a matter of fact, that seemed like the only logical explanation. She knew very well that dreams weren't real, and she especially knew that monsters didn't exist either. But after experiencing something that looked and felt so real, she was certain that whatever creature had attacked her in her dream had somehow reached through the fabric of reality and struck her physically. With this in mind, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to argue any further about the matter.

"You're right Ike," she complied hesitantly, a bit of uncertainty in her voice. "I probably scratched myself while tossing and turning last night. I must not have realized it."

Ike nodded his head in agreement, while Falcon attempted to regain his composure.

"Even if it was real," said the F-Zero racer, "there's no need to worry about a scratch. I can barely notice it from here!"

"Again, the helmet," muttered Ike under his breath.

"You say something Ike?"

"Anyways Lucina," started the swordsman, "I don't think you have anything to worry about. You had a bad dream after watching a scary movie. That's it. I'll bet you that tonight you'll sleep a million times better because you won't have that stupid movie playing through your head."

"Hey!" said Falcon. "It's not stupid! You take that back!"

The two Smashers began arguing with each other and wrestling each other's arms while the other tried to get his point across. Lucina couldn't help but giggle at the childish antics of her two comrades.

"_They're right_," she thought. "_There's nothing to be afraid of. I was just overreacting to a bad experience. There's no need to get so worked up over something silly like this._"

She then proceeded to try and break up the fight between her friends, which surprisingly took a lot more effort than she would have thought. Despite what they had told her, she could hear a small voice in the back of her head telling her that something wasn't right about all of this. And as much as she wanted to believe that voice, it was much easier to simply accept the logical explanation as truth. It was strange to her, however, that the voice only knew how to speak one phrase, which lurked in the back of her mind like a spider waiting to pounce on its unsuspecting prey.

"_Fear in the consumer. Death is the deliverer._"

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I want to take this opportunity to thank my reviewers thus far, including NayNay101, pokemonrhoades, as well as my anonymous reviewers. Updates hereafter are going to be slower than normal. I just wanted to get the first three chapters out fast, kind of like a "preview" to what you can expect the rest of the story to be like. So what do you think about it so far? Is it good? Not so good? Too much OOCness, too dramatic, or what? If there's something you don't like and feel it needs to be fixed, let me know so I can try and correct it for other chapters. Leave a review and let your thoughts be heard. The future of this story depends on it.


	4. Samus' Advice

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thank you to Dapper Dee VI, Pitta, Yuzuru's-Angel, DakotaDusty, and Aurawarrior13 for reviewing.

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><p>Chapter 4: Samus' Advice<p>

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><p>The next few hours of Lucina's Saturday were spent getting ready for her scheduled brawl in the training room. She had been previously informed that her next match was against Samus Aran, one of the Smash Brothers' oldest and most skilled fighters. Though she knew next to nothing about the bounty huntress personally, many a Smasher in the past had warned her about Samus' abilities, how she was such a cold-blooded killer, and how she had no tolerance for nonsensical things. Surely, this was going to be a most pleasant match.<p>

In between slashing her sword back and forth across the Sandbag in the training room and nimbly hopping around it to reposition herself, Lucina still found herself being haunted by the memory of that monster from the previous night. The words of the creature echoed through her mindscape, yet she could not place them no matter how hard she tried. She could recall the monster acting as if it had known her from somewhere before.

"_I've waited so long for this day. The day you would finally set me free._"

Set it free from what though? These thoughts kept bouncing around in her head as she attacked the Sandbag, causing her to stop and ponder every once in a while. There was even a moment where she had knocked the Sandbag up into the air, only to have it drop down on her head in the middle of her daydream. Despite all this, she tried her best to regain control of herself and continue practicing, hoping that these distractions wouldn't affect her during the real brawl.

It was around midafternoon when the match finally begun and Lucina descended onto the Battlefield. Samus, clad in her power suit, appeared on the other side of the stage with her arm cannon at the ready. After a traditional countdown, the fight had begun, and the two Smashers were locked in combat for nearly ten minutes. Despite the clunky suit, Samus was extremely agile in the air. It seemed as though every time Lucina slashed, the bounty huntress would dodge easily before retaliating with a punch or a swift kick. Keeping her distance only resulted in Samus firing projectile after projectile at the swordswoman, so Lucina had no choice but to keep low and stick to her like glue. Unfortunately, she found herself feeling unusually sluggish compared to previous matches. Part of this was due to her mind being somewhere else half the time, and the other due to some missed sleep caused by the nightmare. The longer the match went on, the more tired she was starting to feel, and by the time eight minutes rolled around, Lucina was having a hard time dodging attacks let alone fighting back. Eventually, her last stock was officially depleted, while Samus still had three remaining.

"GAME!"

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><p>Lucina sat down on the couch in the postgame lobby, panting as she tried to catch her breath. She picked up her water bottle and began chugging it, some of the liquid dripping down her chin and onto her crimson armor. Looking up at the large flat-screen TV in the room, she could see videos of herself getting utterly trounced by Samus on the Battlefield. That match was without a doubt the worst one she had participated in since the start of the tournament. Normally, in a losing match, she would be able to get the other fighter down to their last stock before going down permanently. But this scene she was witnessing was nothing but an insult to her reputation and her skills as a swordsman. Hopefully, Samus didn't get the wrong impression of her as a fighter after this.<p>

"Hey, good match," said a familiar voice.

Lucina turned to one of the doors in the room to see Samus walking in, her power suit still on but her helmet under her arm. She had a small smile on her face.

"You did well," replied Lucina as she wiped her mouth with her handkerchief. She did her best to return the warm gesture. "It looks like I still need more practice."

Samus glanced at the replays on the television, analyzing the movements of both her and her opponent.

"So it would seem," she said. "Don't worry; everyone has a bad match once in a while. Last time I checked, you had a pretty positive record in the tournament, so I wouldn't worry too much over this."

"Thank you, Samus," replied Lucina with a smile.

It seemed that despite what she had been hearing from her friends, Samus was actually quite the understanding individual. Perhaps it was everyone else who had her wrong?

"By the way, what's with the red armor?"

Lucina glanced down at her outfit before looking back up sheepishly.

"Um, my blue one is at the cleaners," she said. "This is all I could find on such a short notice."

"I see. Anyway, if you'd like to sit here and review the match with me, that would be fine. If not, I'm gonna head out of here. Got some things to take care of, you know how it is."

It was recommended by Master Hand that all competitors in the brawls should review the matches with their opponent to help them recognize what aspects they could improve on. Although it was recommended, only those who were serious about their training really took the time to sit down and go over the replays.

"Oh no, don't let me keep you," replied Lucina. "If you have somewhere to be then by all means go ahead. I'd rather not stay here and watch this again, believe me."

"Okay, suit yourself. I'll see you around then."

The bounty huntress gave a nod and a wave, understanding where the swordswoman was coming from. She did a double-take, however, at the weird scar on Lucina's cheek before heading for the door.

"Wait Samus," said Lucina all of a sudden, putting a hand up to stop the Smasher.

The bounty huntress turned to face her again, this time a curious expression on her face.

"Hmm?" she asked.

The girl lowered her hand slowly, hesitating with all her might. It seemed that even Lucina wasn't sure with what she was about to ask.

"Have you ever…" she paused again before continuing. "Had a nightmare before?"

Samus raised an eyebrow at the question, wondering why on earth she would ask her something trivial like that. Nevertheless, she remained curious as to where this conversation was going.

"I have," she replied, the look of uncertainty still in her eyes. "Why do you ask?"

"Well… I've been having these bad dreams for the past few nights," said Lucina, trying to sound as casual as possible, "and I was wondering if you would know of any methods to help prevent such a thing?"

Samus paused for a moment, trying to come up with an appropriate answer. She had never really thought about it before since she rarely ever had bad dreams.

"I'm not really sure about how to prevent bad dreams," she said. "But I remember talking about something like this with Meta Knight a long time ago. He said something like it's possible to wake yourself up from a nightmare if you find yourself in the middle of one."

"Really?" replied Lucina with great interest. "How?"

"I don't know; it's hard to describe. You gotta like… establish in your mind what's real and what's not. When you just let your dream take over, you believe everything that's going on. But once you recognize the difference between true and false, then I think you can use that to wake yourself up." She put a hand to her chin, pondering for another moment. "Or you could just plug your nose in your dream. I'm pretty sure that works too."

"Plug my nose?..."

Lucina imagined herself firmly squeezing her nose with her finger and thumb. The very thought of it looked and sounded ridiculous, but she supposed it kind of made sense. If she were to stop breathing in her dream, surely the security mechanisms of her brain would shock her back into reality. Establishing the difference between what is real and made-up would have also helped her immensely when she was being strangled by that demonic bed sheet.

"I think I understand," said the swordswoman graciously. "Thank you, Samus."

"Don't mention it," she replied before turning and exiting the room. "See ya later."

"Bye."

Lucina looked back at the screen and watched the video of her and Samus' fight. She wasn't even paying attention to all the mistakes she was making. All she could think about was what would happen if that creature from her dreams appeared in her room again in the night. Even with the support of her friends, they didn't seem to understand what she was going through. Samus' words may have been the best advice she had received since her first encounter with the monster.

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><p>The rest of the day went on more quickly than Lucina would have liked. After sitting in the postgame lobby for nearly ten minutes after Samus had left, she headed back to her dorm for a quick shower. Along the way, she had run into Sonic in the halls, who challenged her to a race around the mansion. To the hedgehog's dismay, she had declined, but only because she was feeling pretty tired due to her previous brawl. She arrived in her room to find her blue armor washed and dried thanks to the Waddle Dees.<p>

After getting cleaned up, she met up with her good friends Robin and Shulk in one of the commons areas to relax and hang out for a bit. They usually had talks about what was going on in the mansion, or life in general, but Lucina tried to not let them know too much about her match with Samus (or anything about her nightmarish experience for that matter). Thereafter, they joined the other Smashers in the dining room for dinner. The Waddle Dees had cooked up quite an impressive feast, consisting of steak (or chicken if preferred), assorted vegetables, bread stuffing, and pasta. Despite the great amount of food that was available, the poor girl found herself with barely an appetite, as she was yet again distracted by the bizarre dream. She wondered if the other night was merely a fluke and that she was completely overthinking this entire ordeal. She did her best, however, to maintain her usual composure so that none of the other Smashers would suspect her of anything. A glance down the table showed her that Ike and Samus were conversing about something, but they were too far away and the noise was too loud for her to make anything of it. Admittedly, she had the slightest suspicion that the bounty huntress was divulging their earlier conversation to the blue-haired mercenary, but shrugged it off thinking that, again, she was reading too much into it.

The remaining hours of the day were spent in her room reading a book and polishing her sword. Despite the constant yelling and screaming from another Saturday night game of "Laser Football Tag" (LFT) outside on the grounds, she found peace by sitting on a chair and putting on some earplugs. It wasn't long before the events of the day were starting to really wear on her, and Lucina had no choice but to put her book down and get ready for bed.

She contemplated changing into her nightwear, but decided to stick with the blue armor, if (by some chance) she received another unexpected visit in the middle of the night. For good measure, she leaned her Falchion against the side of her bed so that it would be in arm's reach in case of an emergency.

"_Establish what is real and what is not_," she thought to herself as she pulled the blanket over her. "_If all else fails, plug your nose._"

She was tossing and turning for almost an hour, waiting for something to happen. Occasionally, she would open an eye to inspect the balcony door across the room only to find it still and untouched. The suspense was causing her brain to remain pretty active as she kept thinking about ways to try and recreate her actions from last night to make this creature appear. From changing sleeping positions to moving her sheets around, nothing seemed to be working.

"_Just go to sleep for goodness' sake._"

She eventually stopped thinking about the dream and soon enough, her mind began to wander. It wandered and wandered until it finally found a place to settle down and rest. It wasn't long before she drifted off into a deep sleep, completely unaware of the knocking coming from her balcony room door.


	5. The Second Encounter

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p>Chapter 5: The Second Encounter<p>

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><p>Tap. Tap. Tap.<p>

The faint sound of something small and solid hitting the balcony window stirred Lucina back into reality. She blinked a few times, registering where she was and what was going on before she noticed a small object fly up into the air outside and knock against the window. Someone was throwing rocks at her door.

"_How peculiar_," she thought. "_Who would do such a thing at this time of night?_"

Incidentally, it was long after curfew for the Smashers and if anyone was caught wandering about outside the building, well, let's just say the punishments were pretty severe. This never used to be an issue until the Brawl tournament when Captain Falcon, Lucas and Ness had run into the forest in search of a "werewolf" one night, which turned out to be just Wolf going for a midnight stroll to enjoy the full moon (what a crazy Halloween _that_ turned out to be). Master Hand had made it clear that anyone caught outside the mansion after dark would be suspended from the next few weeks of brawling, which could turn out to be disastrous for some Smashers depending on their position. Whoever was trying to get Lucina's attention must have had a damn good reason for doing so.

Quietly, the swordswoman rolled out of bed and made her way to the balcony. She looked about through the glass to see nothing but a few pebbles on the floor outside and a full moon overhead. Another stone flying up from the ground hitting the glass in front of her eyes caused her to flinch before she promptly opened the door and stepped out into the night air. She walked up to the edge of the balcony and peered down expecting Falcon to be dressed in some getup and attempting to serenade her again like he did last month (no one is to say anything about that event). To her surprise, there was nothing down there, not even any woodland creatures or wild Pokémon. The pavement was barren, the picnic tables were empty, and the lawn was as untouched as it had been when it was last cut.

"Hello?" she asked out loud. "Is anyone there?"

The breezy wind brushed her cape and hair up a few inches, but other than that, there was no response from any source of nature. She was beginning to wonder if someone was playing a prank on her. She quickly scanned the area one more time before returning to the confinements of her room and closing the door tightly.

"_How very strange… I thought I heard a noise coming from out there… Unless…_"

Her train of thought was suddenly interrupted yet again by more tapping on the window. She quickly turned on her heels in the direction of the balcony, but nearly shrieked when she saw a lone figure standing outside the door and looking in at her.

The figure outside did not belong to that of the monster she had encountered in the previous night. In fact, the being standing outside looked rather human. From head to toe, the person was dressed in exactly the same outfit as Lucina, from the cape and boots to the blue shoulder plates. Not only that, but the figure also had the exact same hair-style, hair color, and body figure of Lucina. It was like she was standing in front of a mirror. Of all these similarities however, there was one outstandingly huge factor about this person that nearly caused Lucina to jump out of her skin. The mirror image of the outside individual had no face. No, instead of a face, this doppelganger had nothing but a black void to gaze into. No eyes, no nose, no mouth, nothing to distinguish the thought that this thing could really be human.

The swordswoman took a step back in shock, putting an arm up as if it would protect her from the stare of the woman outside. The person outside did not move, however, and continued to gaze emptily into Lucina's eyes, as if it were beckoning for her to open up the door for it. The woman outside raised a hand and began firmly knocking on the door.

"What are you!?" shouted Lucina in disbelief.

The woman continued knocking, ignoring Lucina's question entirely. Who knew if the thing could even understand English? Who knew if it even had ears beneath all that hair? Lucina ended up standing there for almost a minute, trying to make sense of what was going on.

"_This has to be a dream_," she thought. "_There's no denying it. This creature is entirely different from the one last night. What is it trying to do?_"

Nevertheless, a dream was still a dream. Yet, despite the fact that she was well aware of this by now, she still wasn't waking up. The fake "Lucina" now had both fists in the air and was pounding on the glass, as if it were trying to break free from some sort of captivity.

"_Calm down, it's only a dream_," Lucina thought as she took a deep breath. She glanced back at the figure outside, holding her ground as best she could. "_Just wake up and it will all be over_."

She reached up to her face and squeezed her nose with her thumb and forefinger, holding her breath as tightly as she could. She closed her eyes and tried to think about being home in the mansion with her friends. All the while, the woman kept on knocking, but Lucina did her best to take her mind off the situation by thinking about unrelated events like waking up early in the morning in order to beat the breakfast rush. After a few minutes of idly standing by, she could feel her lungs starting to fight back, forcefully trying to find their way to any air they could salvage. Her face was almost as blue as her hair, but when it got to that point, she had no choice but to let go. Her hand fell clean off her face and she began coughing and panting for breath.

"_Did that do it?_"

She glanced up to see if the creature was still outside, but froze on the spot at the sight. Indeed the woman was still standing out on the balcony bathed in moonlight, but this time she was wielding a Falchion. Lucina's eyes went wide as she saw the doppelganger lift the sword high into the air and slam it down against the glass, the finely tempered steel shattering the pane instantaneously. Lucina covered herself from the raining glass in her direction and opened her eyes to see that there no longer was a barrier separating her from the mysterious intruder. The empty-faced "Lucina" stared at her and raised its sword.

It looked like reasoning with it was out of the question.

The creature silently lunged at the swordswoman, but she swiftly dodged backwards with a backflip, landing lightly on her bed and pulling her sword up from its place. She stepped down onto the floor and swung her Falchion about in a threatening manner.

"Identify yourself, monster," she demanded.

The other woman only stared in response before it charged at her ready for another attack. The creature slashed forward, forcing Lucina to dodge to the left where she then retaliated with a strike of her own. The woman parried the blow and began performing a Dancing Blade, a technique that Lucina had recently learned from Marth. The onslaught of blades forced her to backed off as the woman began flailing about, slicing up furniture and other household objects in the room.

"_It copied my own moves!_" she thought. "_How can this be?_"

Lucina dashed forward and performed a frontal slash, but the monster was swift enough to dodge the attack again. The two sword-wielders became locked in a clash of blades, each of them swinging at the other, but no hits being taken as the other was either quick to move or quick to parry. If this creature was not going to negotiate, then Lucina had no choice but to cut it down where it stood. The only problem was that this fake woman actually _was_ proving to be a good enough match for her. If she didn't know any better, Lucina would have thought that this monster was her own equal on the battlefield.

The creature lunged high in an attempt to slice of the swordswoman's head, but that was the opportunity Lucina needed. For when the monster slashed high, Lucina ducked down and slashed low, cutting the woman horizontally across the stomach. The empty-faced human silently stumbled back in pain, holding its wound with one of its hands. Lucina stood triumphantly with a hand on her hip, a small smirk on her face.

"You may look like me," muttered the swordswoman, "but you cannot think like me. Now identify yourself before I cut you to ribbons!"

The creature only stared blankly at Lucina, limping ever so slightly. It pulled its arm away from its abdomen, revealing not a single drop of blood. Beneath the clean cut of the armor, Lucina could see nothing but blackness, just like the face of the being.

"But, how?-"

She flinched, a sudden pain shooting across the front of her body as she grabbed herself with her free hand. Her armor had been cut and she was bleeding in the exact same location where she had thought she cut the doppelganger. Perhaps this horrifying intruder was more than just a mirror image? Small drops of blood began seeping through her teeth and down her chin, causing her to wipe her mouth with the back of her sleeve.

"_It didn't touch me once with that sword_," thought Lucina distressfully. "_How am I bleeding?_"

The creature made a solemn bow, as if it were being applauded for some sort of magic trick it just performed. Immediately after that, the monster sprang into berserk mode. It slashed at Lucina again across the chest. Though she was able to deflect it, she was not able to block the next attack as it was another direct hit to her side. Another slash soon followed to her leg, then her torso, and soon she felt like she had been sent through a meat grinder. No matter what attacks she delivered back to the fake "Lucina", the creature would not flinch or stutter, and every direct hit would only be redirected back at her like it did the first time. Blood was splattering up against the walls, on the ceiling, on whatever was left of the furniture, all of it belonging to Lucina. In a final attempt, Lucina leaned forward and pressed her bleeding Falchion right through the chest of the monster, but of course, the creature was unfazed. It grabbed the swordswoman by her hair and threw her against the side of the bed, the sword still wedged in its ribcage.

Through blood and tears, Lucina looked up to see a blurry image of herself approaching her, preparing to seal her own demise. At this point, Lucina wasn't sure if it was a dream or not. All she knew was that she wanted it to stop. The dark energy emanating from this creature crept up her body, merging itself into her own fears. She had no choice but to stare wide-eyed at the familiar woman, reeling back its sword, aiming for her head.

The swordswoman was shaking uncontrollably, slamming her eyes shut and praying that someone would wake her up from this nightmare. A small voice suddenly echoed through the room, causing her to look back up at her executioner.

"Do not fret, Lucina," said the distorted voice of the woman. "It will all be over soon."

The sword shot forward, cleanly impaling Lucina through her own face.

Lucina sprang up from her bed drenched in sweat and tears, screaming at the top of her lungs in horror. Her eyes quickly darted about the room searching for any sign of the intruder, but thankfully the no-faced "Lucina" was nowhere to be found. The sound of multiple footsteps stampeding down the hall outside brought her to attention, as the murmuring voices of some Smashers could be heard coming through the walls. The moonlight gleamed chillingly into the room from the glass balcony door at the side of the room, verifying that the horrifying events of the night were nothing more than a bad dream. Or were they?

Lucina suddenly felt a stabbing pain in her torso, as well as a few of her limbs. She looked down to see that she was bleeding all over the place, and her bed sheets had almost been painted completely red. A series of pounding on her door soon followed, as well as several voices calling in to ask if she was alright and for her to open the door. As much as she wanted to, she just couldn't.

"Help…me…"

With the amount of blood loss that she had suffered, she quickly began to feel light-headed, and soon enough, she had collapsed back onto her blood-stained pillow and blacked out. A trusty Falcon Punch was able to break down the front door in a matter of seconds, and it wasn't long before she had been rushed to the hospital wing. Had she taken the time to examine the balcony door a bit closer, she would have noticed the pebbles still lying on the ground outside the door.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thank you so much to pokemonrhoades, Pitta, F-ZeroSamus, and my anonymous readers for reviewing, and I'm sorry for the long update but it's been a crazy two weeks for me (plus any chances I have to update stories is currently going to my other one in progress). My assignments have all be submitted for the week however and guess what? Smash Bros. 4 3DS comes out tomorrow! I'll be getting' up early to go snag my copy and you should all do the same! If you guys don't hear from me for a while, you'll know the reason why, but I'll try to get back to updating this story as soon as I can afterwards. Leave a review and tell me your thoughts on this chapter and I'll catch you on the flip side!


	6. Time to Recover

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p>Chapter 6: Time to Recover<p>

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><p>The midafternoon sun shining brightly in through the window had awoken Lucina from her deep sleep. She found herself lying in a hospital bed in a clean white room with various medical equipment propped up against the nearby wall. Her drowsy eyes rolled from one end of the room to the other when they stopped at a beautiful figure sitting next to her bedside. Princess Zelda had her eyes closed, her hands clasped around that of the swordswoman's, and a pulsating golden aura emanating from where they contacted. Lucina could feel a strange energy flowing through her body, the stabbing wounds of the nightmare slowly disappearing, as if a holy sponge had been dropped on her to cleanse every drop of blood away. The turn of events from the previous night suddenly flashed through her head.<p>

"_What in the world was that creature?_" she thought. "_And where did it come from?_"

Just like her first encounter with the demonic being from the movie night, the words of this second entity echoed through the chasms of her psyche.

"_It will all be over soon._"

She tried moving her limbs around, which already felt better than they did on the night of the attack. She realized that she was dressed in a standard white hospital gown with layers of bandages wrapped around her torso, arms, and legs. Some of the wrappings had been stained red from her wounds. Her sudden movements naturally caused Zelda to break out of her trance.

"Oh, you're awake," said the Hyrulian princess warmly. "How are you feeling?"

Lucina could only shrug her shoulders, though her facial expression was still pretty depressing.

"Better," she replied weakly. "Although I do have a slight headache."

"There's nothing I can do about that I'm afraid," responded Zelda, taking her hands off the swordswoman. "I can get some Tylenol from Dr. Mario if you like."

The blue-haired woman shook her head, dismissing her previous comment. Her mind was flooded with questions about the creature from last night; all she wanted was someone to talk to about it.

"What happened last night?" she asked.

Zelda hesitated before replying, trying to think of a way to explain the situation.

"We heard you screaming in your room," she said straightforwardly. "It wasn't just any scream either; you sounded like you were in pain." Lucina glanced down at that last statement. "We ran to your room as quick as we could and tried to open the door but it was locked. Captain Falcon had to break it down. When we saw you… we thought you were dead."

Lucina recalled the painful experience of being cut up like some boar at a slaughterhouse, cringing at the thought and being utterly humiliated at the hands of her assaulter.

"Did you see my attacker?" she asked hopefully.

Zelda shook her head.

"There was no one there except you. We brought you here as quickly as we could. You lost a lot of blood, but thankfully you were able to recover. I have been concentrating my healing magic on your core for almost the entire day. It will help to ease the pain."

"I noticed," replied Lucina, trying to muster a smile. "Thank you."

Regardless of what the princess had told her, she still felt upset that the other Smashers did not see the mysterious copycat from her balcony. There's no way that the whole ordeal could have been a dream, not when she had gone through such a painful experience like that.

"One other thing," said Zelda all of a sudden. "You were holding your sword when we found you. It took them forever to pry it from your hands."

"What?" replied Lucina in surprise.

The princess gestured to the other bed in the room, showing Lucina that her bloody Falchion was standing up and leaning against the bedside. It was then that Lucina realized what the princess was alluding to.

"This isn't what it looks like," said Lucina seriously. "I was attacked in my sleep last night by an intruder."

"I want to believe you, Lucina," replied the princess, "however, it is impossible for anything to break into the mansion. Master Hand has put a magical seal on the grounds, preventing any and all intrusions on the property."

This was true, and was also proven one day a few years ago when Diddy Kong had wandered out into the forest and accidentally disturbed the overpassing Rayquaza. The legendary flying Pokémon had gone on a rampage and began destroying everything in the immediate vicinity. Diddy had fortunately fled back to the mansion, but was followed by Rayquaza along the way. Thanks to the magical barrier protecting the mansion, Rayquaza could not harm anything on the grounds, and subsequently returned to its resting place.

"Well, the barrier didn't have any effect on this creature," said Lucina. "It broke into my room with ease and began attacking me on the spot."

"Your room was untouched for the most part. Nothing near the balcony was disturbed in any way." Zelda put a hand on the swordswoman's shoulder. "I'm sure the others a worried sick about you, Lucina. Please, try to get some rest, and we can talk about this afterwards. If you need anything, you can use the buzzer to call Dr. Mario; he should be here soon to check up on you."

The princess promptly got up and made her way out of the room, leaving Lucina all to her lonesome. She found herself staring at her Falchion across the room for a few minutes, studying the bloody marks along the blade's edge.

"_I'm not crazy_," she thought to herself. "_That woman attacked me last night just as that demon had done so it in the night before. There must be something I can do…_"

It was hard to concentrate due to her light-headedness, but she tried her best to come up with a new plan to fight back against the mysterious creatures of the night. She did her best not to pass out however for fear that the faceless monster would show itself in her room again.

* * *

><p>The rest of Lucina's Sunday was evidently uneventful, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing either since that was the case for most of the other Smashers. As a matter of fact, Sunday was the only day of the week when daily matches were not scheduled, giving Smashers free reign to do whatever they wanted with their day, though most would normally commit it to whatever hobbies or personal projects they themselves were working on. Even with the 14 hours of sleep from the first part of the day, Lucina was still finding it hard to stay awake and keep herself entertained. Dr. Mario had shown up just as Zelda had said to check up on her, giving her some Tylenol and also providing her with some light food to keep her energy levels up. Despite the hospitality, the hospital wing was still a pretty depressing place to be. Typically, the rooms would have at least a few Smashers in the beds at any given time due to the nature of the tournaments, but recently there had been no need for such things. It looked like the Smashers were getting better at not beating each other up too bad.<p>

Some of the Smashers had paid Lucina a visit during the day, mainly just to see how she was doing and to give her "Get Well Soon" cards. Kirby had even cooked her some fried rice to make her feel better (though if you ask her, fried rice was not the best thing to give someone recovering from an injury), while Toon Link and the Villager had banded together to clean and polish her sword (though some were still skeptical about them doing that). When Marth came to visit, she naturally felt embarrassed for the Hero King to see her in such a state, but fortunately he was quite understanding of her situation, mentioning that the only thing that mattered was a safe and healthy recovery. Incidentally, Captain Falcon had taken the liberty of not only making a card, but also picking her some flowers (from Olimar's garden, hush hush) and getting her a stuffed bear, to which she had to admit was by far the most thoughtful and heartwarming thing she had ever received from the F-Zero racer before. When asked about anything related to the incident, however, Lucina would dismiss such questions, stating that she was either too tired or uncomfortable to go into any detail about it. She assured her fellow Smashers that she would explain everything to them after her recovery, though admittedly some were still not satisfied with that answer, giving her long hard stares as if she was trying to hide something from public eyes.

Later on in the afternoon, after most of the Smashers had come and left with their kind words or gifts, Falcon and Ike collectively met together with Lucina to finally establish exactly what the hell happened in the night prior.

"So let me get this straight," said Ike, standing with his arms crossed next to Lucina's bed. "You were attacked by a swordsman who was dressed like you?"

Lucina nodded, her hands together on her stomach as if she were in prayer.

"It wasn't only dressed like me," she explained, "but it looked just like me. We even had the same hair and carried the same sword."

Falcon was leaning against the wall near the window, staring at the ground. His usual upbeat and happy-go-lucky demeanor was deflated by Lucina's physical state.

"Darn it, if only I were there…" he muttered.

"I don't need protection," replied Lucina harshly. "I need you to believe me."

"We believe you Lucina," said Ike reassuringly, though for some reason she still wasn't convinced.

"You don't understand," she replied seriously. "Some of the Smashers are starting to think that I did this to myself." She raised her bandaged arm, pointing at the small scabs along her neck. "I can see it in their eyes. If Master Hand finds out about this, I don't know what he's going to do."

Falcon slammed his fist into the wall, startling the other two swordsmen momentarily.

"He's not going to do anything," said Falcon seriously. "If he does, he'll have to go through me!"

"Calm down, Falcon," replied Ike. "You're getting ahead of yourself."

"If he so much as puts a finger on her, I'll break his bones so hard that-"

"Lucina, he probably already knows about this," interrupted Ike. "He's just been really busy with scheduling the tournament. It's also likely that he's waiting for all the excitement to die down before coming to see you."

"I just don't want him to think that this is me," she replied. "Because it's not. I can understand if you two didn't want to believe what happened during the first night, but after this… I'm asking you as a friend. Please, don't abandon me."

Her voice seemed to crack slightly as she said those last words, causing Falcon to get all choked up. Ike glanced at him, but the F-Zero racer took no notice. All he could see was the sad girl sitting in the bed, wounded and broken from the recent turn of unfortunate events. Instinctively, he made his way over to her bedside and was about to give her a hug when a sudden series of knocks came from the door.

"Come in," said Ike calmly.

"Am I interrupting anything?" asked Robin as he stepped into the room.

"No, not at all," replied Ike, though Falcon would have liked to raise a hand in objection.

The young mage waltzed over to Lucina's bedside with a warm smile, causing her to regain her composure.

"I brought these for you," he said, producing a beautiful bouquet of colorful flowers from seemingly out of nowhere.

Falcon's mouth nearly dropped to the floor.

"Oh my, these are lovely," replied Lucina, mustering the best smile she could as she received the gift. "Thank you, Robin."

"Think nothing of it," he replied. "Just doing my part in aiding your recovery. How are you feeling by the way?"

"I'm getting better," she replied. "Princess Zelda's magic took away a lot of the pain. I don't feel bad, but I'm still tired."

"From the loss of blood no doubt. You gave us all quite a scare last night. Would you mind telling me exactly what happened?"

Falcon crossed his arms and retook his place against the wall, knowing full well that Lucina trusted Robin as one of her closest friends, and would without a doubt divulge every last bit of information about her nightmare to him. Although she was hesitant to at first, she knew she wanted to tell Robin everything about the incidents now, especially at this point. Surely the scholar would know something about how to deal with these attacks, or at least be able to offer some sound advice. Ike, more or less, was content with hearing the tale again.

She told them of the first night, when the large demon from her dreams had appeared in her room, manipulating her bed sheets into a snake-like coil around her body. It had claws like a werewolf, a smile like a psychotic jester, and eyes that gleamed red in the night. She even gestured to the scar along her face that was still noticeable after the assault. Unlike Falcon and Ike, who had previously dismissed her descriptions of the first night, Robin was taking everything in like a child being read a storybook. She then went on to the second night, about the faceless phantom on her balcony, and how the creature could mimic her every sword move like her own reflection. The slash wounds on her body were proof enough that the magical barrier protecting the mansion may not have been as trustworthy as they thought.

"I fear that another monster may spawn in my room when I fall asleep tonight," she said honestly. "But I don't know what I can do to prevent it."

Plugging her nose sure as hell didn't help much.

Robin put a finger to his chin, thinking about her rather vivid explanation. He glanced at Ike who also glanced back with a shrug of his shoulders, not sure of what to make of the situation. Falcon remained against the wall with his arms crossed.

"You said that these nightmares started occurring Friday night?" asked Robin.

"Yes," replied Lucina. "It was after we had watched that horror movie when the first monster appeared in my dreams."

"Hmm. Maybe that has something to do with it."

"Oh really?" spat Falcon. "Well I hate to burst your bubble 'wise guy', but Ike and I also stayed up to watch that movie and we're perfectly fine!"

"You're forgetting, Falcon," said Ike, "that you and I both fell asleep. Lucina was the only one who stayed up through the whole thing."

Robin raised his eyebrows at Falcon who promptly turned away.

"There are a number of possibilities as to why this could be occurring," said Robin, "but there won't be a true answer unless we obtain more info."

"You believe me though, don't you?" asked Lucina, trying not to sound desperate but failing.

"Of course I do," replied Robin warmly. "Seriously, the thought that you could do _this_ to yourself, let alone in your sleep, is absolute ludicrous."

Ike's face turned a soft red as the mage said those last words, but quickly dismissed the thought.

"What should we do then?" he asked. "Wait for her to fall asleep and see what happens?"

"That wouldn't be a bad idea," replied Robin calmly. "Nobody here except Lucina has seen these monsters in person. If someone were to hide out here during the night, surely they would see some form of these nightmares occurring whether it be through Lucina or otherwise."

"I'll do it," said Falcon hastily from the side. "I'll stay up the entire night, and if any of those freaks decide to show up, they're gonna get a Falcon Punch to the face!"

"Is staying in my room the only way though?" asked Lucina.

"She's right," responded Ike. "She won't be able to fall asleep normally if we stand in here watching her. We'll have to find another way."

"I believe R.O.B. keeps video surveillance of every public room in the mansion regularly," said Robin. "You can ask him if you can keep watch for the night in the security room."

Ike glanced at Falcon who, though skeptical, responded with a firm nod.

"Okay, we'll do it," said Ike. "But what about you?"

"I'm going to the library," replied Robin. "Surely there must be something in the archives that can give us a hint at what we're up against here. If I find anything, I'll let you know. Give me until tomorrow at least."

"Sounds good. We'll let you know if we learn anything as well. Right Falcon?"

"Um, yeah sure, of course," said the F-Zero racer unenthusiastically.

Robin nodded his head before turning back to Lucina.

"Thank you all for doing this," she said with a smile. "It really means a lot to me."

"I can well imagine," replied Robin. "Well, I best be off then. There are a few books I have to return to Lucario before I get to work." He put a warm hand on Lucina's, pressing it gently. "Do try to get better. I'll see you soon."

"Good-bye Robin," she replied. "And thank you."

With that, the mage took his leave, but not before waving to the other two Smashers in the room. A few seconds after he had left, Falcon stomped his foot on the tiled floor.

"Man, who does that guy think he is?" he mumbled with a frown.

"I don't know," chuckled Ike. "But if I didn't know better, I'd say you were jealous."

Falcon was taken aback by his comment.

"What!? Me jealous of that goody-two-shoes tactician!?" he replied. "Please, I don't have a jealous bone in my body. The guy's a wuss anyway; what's there to be jealous of?"

Ike already knew the answer to that question.

"I appreciate what you both are trying to do for me," said Lucina all of a sudden. "If there's anything I can do to repay you in the future, please don't hesitate to ask."

"Well now that you mention it…" said Falcon.

"Don't thank us yet," interrupted Ike again. "We still haven't put a stop to these nightmares. Tonight, Falcon and I will meet with R.O.B. in the security room and keep an eye out for anything suspicious. If something does go wrong in here, we'll know."

The three friends talked for a few more minutes about the plan before Dr. Mario had walked into the room to check on Lucina. Ike and Falcon took that as a sign to leave, but they were quick to rendezvous in the hall to discuss what they were going to do to help Lucina. After a few hours of napping, Lucina had awoken to a warm dinner delivered by one of the Waddle Dees, and despite the wounds on her body, she had no problem eating it all. Zelda's magic had indeed worked wonders for her; however, the day wasn't over yet. The ultimate test was going to take place after dark, after all the Smashers had fallen asleep and, most importantly, after Lucina had fallen asleep. For her sake, Falcon and Ike better have been keeping a sharp eye out for anything suspicious. If not, well, then she was probably going to die a painful and gory death.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thanks to pokemonrhoades, AuraWarrior13, Pitta, Dapper Dee VI, and my anonymous reviewer for reviewing! Speaking of my anonymous reviewer, what is with you and Charizard? I'm just kidding. Maybe I'll bring the old lizard in for a cameo in some chapter (I'd like to have every Smasher appear at least once in this story). And speaking of Smashers, SSB4 is the best damn 3DS game ever! (yes even better than Pokémon, there I said it). My main man Captain Falcon is king of the for glory mode! Who is your favorite character to play as in this game? See you guys next chapter!


	7. The Third Encounter

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Just want to give a quick thanks to my reviewers, including pokemonrhoades, F-ZeroSamus, Gamerfan64, AuraWarrior13, Pitta, Flare Hedgehog, and my anonymous reviewers. One of my anonymous reviewers, who went by the signed name "Erika", raised some pretty valid points about Lucina and her canon history with nightmares, as well as Marth's lack of presence in this story. I'm trying my best to avoid any spoilers to FE:Awakening for anyone who has yet to play it, so any ties to that game in this story are going to be shallow for the most part (unless I decide to change something later). As for Marth well, let's just say I don't want this story to be focused on all the Fire Emblem cast since, after all, it is a Smash Bros. story! You are right by saying that he should be more involved, especially since this is about Lucina, so I have gone back and edited some of chapter 6 to basically say that Lucina refused to explain anything about her situation to anyone until she got better. In other words, he wants to help but she has turned away from him and other Smashers for the time being. At this point, she really only trusts Ike and Falcon (as well as Robin now) because they've known about her troubles since the beginning. If she doesn't say something soon though, I don't think the other Smashers are going to appreciate it. Thank you Erika for the insightful comments, and if you guys have any further questions about this story, please don't hesitate to ask since that's what the review button is for.

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><p>Chapter 7: The Third Encounter<p>

* * *

><p>With memories of the other night's incident still lingering in her head, Lucina was having a hard time falling asleep. She tossed and turned for more than an hour, opening her eyes slightly at the small security camera suspended in a high corner of her hospital room. Even with the watchful eye of the camera on her, she couldn't help but feel that she was in danger. Earlier, she had moved her Falchion to her nightstand so that she could easily reach it in case of another break in. Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling too confident in herself. If that doppelganger were to show up again, who knows if she would be able to fight it one on one in her current condition. Ultimately, she was more concerned with the Smashers sitting on the other end of the camera, hoping that if another nightmare were to occur, they would be able to witness it firsthand. Whether or not they would be able to help her with it, well, she could only hope for the best.<p>

After a few minutes of laying perfectly still, her breathing soon became light and constant, her eyes closed like an innocent child taking a nap. As anyone would when falling asleep, she lost track of time and reality, and her mind began to wander off into the mystical world of Dreamland. Unfortunately, she wasn't aware at all however, of a creeping shadow scurrying across the tiled floor. The shadow was quick, graceful, and scaled the flat walls like some sort of spider, silently crawling across the ceiling above Lucina's bed. Had she been awake for just a little longer, she would have seen the creature running about her room, and would have naturally prepared a counterattack. To the Smashers looking through the camera eye, all seemed like another normal night in Smash Mansion.

"She's finally asleep," said Ike as he studied the black and white image of Lucina's room on the screen.

Ike, Captain Falcon, and R.O.B. were sitting in the mansion's security room, a room that was filled to the brim with monitors wired to every security camera in the building. It was also possibly the darkest room in the entire mansion. There were about thirty or so screens against the wall, with a main control panel along the bottom that only R.O.B. knew how to manage efficiently. The cameras themselves were tied to every public area of the mansion, some notable locations being the courtyard, the foyer, the roof, the ballroom, and the dining room. The hospital wing was obviously the one that these Smashers were concerned with, though R.O.B. was very talented at keeping track of every room at any given time regardless. Without a need to eat or sleep, the Robotic Operating Buddy was the ultimate security guard, and he did his duties to the utmost best of his mechanical abilities.

"Remind me," stated R.O.B. in his monotonous robotic voice, "what it is we are searching for?"

Captain Falcon took a long gulp of his cup of coffee, allowing Ike to respond.

"Anything that looks out of the ordinary," replied the mercenary. "She said that there were monsters that attacked her in her room last night and the night before. If you see anything, raise the alarm."

"Not sure what good that will do us," said Falcon as he put down his mug. "The alarm will only summon the Waddle Dees, and if those monsters are as bad as she said they would be, I doubt they'll stand a chance against them." He took another quick drink of his beverage before continuing. "You have a better chance of me running over there to fight those things."

"We need you here to watch the screens," replied Ike.

"Not necessarily," said R.O.B., his metallic head panning from one screen to another. "I am fully capable of keeping consistent surveillance by myself."

"Yeah Ike, so why are we even here?" asked Falcon. "We should be waiting outside of Lucina's room ready to strike in case something goes wrong!"

The swordsman scratched the back of his head, somewhat surprised that the F-Zero racer had a good point.

"Well," he began, "Lucina told us what the creatures looked like on the night she was attacked. If we stay here we can keep an eye out for them."

"The chances of a monster breaking into the mansion are roughly 0.93%," stated R.O.B. blankly. "Any creature that is able to break through the barrier likely possesses some sort of otherworldly power that would render our own defenses completely useless. There is no being in our records that would have enough power to cause such destruction, with the exception of Tabuu."

Tabuu. Even the mere mention of his name still sent shivers up and down Ike's spine. Tabuu was the alleged leader of the Subspace Army, and was also subsequently defeated by the Smashers about seven years prior. This of course happened before any of the newcomers for the new tournament showed up, including Lucina. An epic war had taken place in Subspace, which prove to be the ultimate test of trust between the Smashers at the time. Alliances had to be formed, lifelong enemies needed to put their differences aside. It was the first time in Master Hand's life when he had seen Link and Ganondorf actually shake hands. The battle of Subspace proved to the universe exactly who the Super Smash Brothers were and why they were such a force to be reckoned with. Tabuu ultimately learned that the hard way and was defeated at the hands of the Smashers. With what R.O.B. was saying, however, could Lucina's nightmares somehow be linked to Tabuu's second coming?

"Pfft," spat Falcon. "Tabuu, really? That guy's deader than the Ice Climbers franchise."

"It is not likely that Tabuu would return," replied R.O.B. "But it does not remove the fact that there could exist a being with at least as much power as he."

Even if there was, chances are it would have killed them all by now anyway.

"Guys, stay focused," said Ike, his eyes scanning the monitor. "That creature could appear at any moment now."

The three friends sat there and stared at the monitors for what seemed like hours. Even after downing two cups of coffee, Ike and Falcon were having a hard time staying awake. It must have been around 3 in the morning by now, but they remained vigilant in their attempt to watch over Lucina. Every now and then, Ike would scan the other monitors to see absolutely nothing going on. He would have to look away from the bright screens occasionally to refocus his eyes and to stop the shining colors from appearing whenever he closed them. Falcon, as tired as he was, refused to back down on the thought that Ike would tell Robin he fell asleep on the job.

"Jeez, R.O.B.," said Falcon with a yawn. "How can you stay awake so long without getting tired?"

"I am a robot," replied R.O.B. straightforwardly. "I do not require basic survival needs unlike you humans."

"But don't you ever get worn out? Like, your circuits malfunctioning, or an oil change or something?"

"Rarely," he replied. "I can operate without issue for several weeks without requiring a shutdown or reboot."

R.O.B. was probably one of the strangest Smashers Falcon and Ike had ever met in their career. It's not that he was a robot so much as the fact that he was so neutral to everything. With the exception of that event during the Subspace Emissary where R.O.B. had fought back to protect his clones, the robot didn't seem to sway to anyone's side in any kind of conversation or conflict. He had friends, sure, but he treated everyone the same anyway. He didn't care for social gatherings, nor did he care to spend time with Smashers alone. He was a hard worker and he was perfectly content with just that. This of course was a problem whenever someone had to face him in a tournament because R.O.B. wasn't the type of Smasher to go easy on anyone. It made the F-Zero racer wonder just how lonely this robot was before he joined the Smash Bros.

"Don't you ever get bored?" asked Falcon, followed by another drawn out yawn.

"Negative," replied R.O.B., his eyes still fixed on the screens. "Boredom is a nonexistent emotion to me."

"_Along with every other emotion_," thought Ike.

"Man, this sucks," said Falcon with his arms crossed. "I almost wish something would happen already."

The three Smashers resumed their watching of Lucina's room. Just as it had been a few hours earlier, nothing was amiss here. Lucina continued to sleep soundly as if she didn't have a care in the world (although due to the past few nights, she was indeed feeling quite the opposite). The clock ticked and the silent buzzing of the monitors began to flicker every now and then, but other than that, it was a silent night. Minutes passed, soon another hour, and the next thing anyone knew it was already 4:30 in the morning. If they were to wait another hour, they would soon see Little Mac out in the halls making his way to the training room for his morning exercises. The idleness was starting to wear on Ike and Falcon, especially Falcon who couldn't go a day without at least 10 hours of sleep. The coffee was only making him more anxious, and even after five bathroom breaks, he was starting to think that this whole operation was a wild goose chase. Ike was not fairing so well either and found himself getting up to do some push-ups or chin-ups in order to keep the blood flowing through his body. R.O.B. as always remained stationary, his head panning from one monitor to the next mechanically, as if his sole purpose in life was to sit still and watch security screens.

Lucina had suddenly moved from her sideways position to lying on her back, a completely normal thing for anyone trying to catch some Z's. The robot noticed, however, that her hands were wrapped around her neck in an odd manner, making it look like she was trying to choke herself. Her head began shaking aggressively back and forth, as if she was trying to break free from something. All these actions over the course of a few seconds confirmed the robot's suspicions all along.

"She's awake," said R.O.B. calmly.

"She is?" asked Falcon, jumping at attention. The F-Zero racer and his companion got up from their seats and studied the monitor closely.

Lucina seemed to be struggling with herself, yanking her head left and right and kicking her legs about beneath the sheets. It looked as if some invisible entity was holding her down, except her hands were tightly squeezed around her own neck. Her face bore an expression of great stress and fear, hinting to the thought that she was completely aware of what was transpiring.

"What's she doing?" asked Ike, squinting his eyes in an attempt to get a clearer picture.

"She appears to be strangling herself," replied R.O.B. straightforwardly.

"WHAT?!" shouted Falcon in shock.

Indeed, if it were not for the black and white contrast of the monitor, the Smashers would have noticed Lucina's face changing to a very unnatural color. Her cheeks began puffing out, her eyes rolling up into the back of her head like someone was squeezing every last breath of air out of her.

"Well don't just stand there, sound the alarm!" cried Ike as he turned to the robot.

"I already tried," replied R.O.B. monotonously. "The security system in the mansion appears to be malfunctioning. I do not understand why."

Ike gritted his teeth as he glanced back at the helpless girl on the screen. Of all the times for the security system to break down, why did it have to be now? It was all too convenient for it to be a mere coincidence. He had to admit he was rather annoyed with how calmly R.O.B. was taking all of this.

"That leaves us with plan B," muttered Ike. "Falcon-"

But when he looked the side, the F-Zero racer was no longer standing in the room.

"He's making his way there now," said R.O.B. as he pointed to a monitor displaying one of the mansions halls. Captain Falcon was sprinting as fast as his legs could take him, which was pretty fast to say the least since he was one of the faster runners in the Smash Bros.

"Oh for crying out loud," said Ike, drawing his sword and dashing out of the room after his fellow Smasher.

R.O.B. did not watch the swordsman leave, but kept his gaze fixed on Lucina's room. He couldn't understand how a monster could have gotten into the mansion without him noticing. He knew very well that it wasn't Lucina who was strangling herself, for no human brain could push the body to such limits without coming to a stop. No, something much darker was at large here, and whatever it was, it wanted Lucina dead.

Lucina attempted to kick and roll herself off the bed, but something was holding her down around the neck. When the creature initially pounced, she barely had any time to react, for the spiderlike monster had descended from the ceiling like a hawk. Before she could comprehend what was going on, her ears were filled with an eerie humming sound, and the next thing she knew a large black hand had landed around her neck, squeezing her with such force that it nearly snapped her spine on contact. She tried reaching for her Falchion, but the force of the creature was too much, and she had no choice but to try and pry this thing off of her with her own hands. The hand of the creature itself was as cold as ice, freezing her fingers at the touch. Any attempts at calling for help were only silenced because her vocal chords had been too compressed. Her mouth just fell open with no words escaping, not even a scream.

"_Someone, anyone,_" she thought. "_Help me…_"

The door to the room suddenly burst open and Captain Falcon dashed to her side. Just as he had seen in the security room, Lucina's hands were still firmly grasped around her neck as if she were strangling herself. There appeared to be no monster in the room.

"Lucina, snap out of it!" shouted Falcon as he grabbed her hands trying to pry them off her neck.

The swordswoman kicked back at him, knocking him onto the floor while she continued to fight with herself aggressively. Falcon quickly jumped to his feet and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Okay, you leave me with no choice," he said. "Don't hate me for this!"

The F-Zero racer jumped onto her bed so that he was sitting on top of her stomach, holding her body down with his weight. He then grabbed both of the hands around her neck with his own and tried prying them off of her.

"Hang in there!" he cried. "And don't die on me!"

Lucina could feel the grip of the black hand around her neck easing up, but she was not sure why. She was able to get some quick breaths in as she pulled the monster off of her, which was enough for her to shout for help. She pulled and pulled and slowly but surely she could feel the grip of the creature loosening. With one final effort, she cried out and used all her strength to pry herself free from the clutches of the creature, sending it flying high into the ceiling where it molded back into the shadows. The humming sound from before began to fill the room again and immediately thereafter she was enveloped in a brilliant white light.

Her eyes shot open.

The first thing she was saw was Captain Falcon sitting on top of her, panting heavily and sweating. His eyes were closed, but he had her arms pinned down to either corner of the bed. She realized that she too was panting hard, her heart rate skyrocketing to speeds that were definitely not normal. The two friends were locked in that position for a few seconds, Falcon too worn out to do anything, and Lucina too bewildered to comprehend what just happened.

"Um… Captain Falcon?" was all she said before breaking out into a series of coughing fits.

Falcon's eyes opened at the sound of her voice.

"You're… alive," he replied between breaths.

Lucina caught herself, inhaling deeply and exhaling just like normal. She didn't know why, but small tears quickly began to form in her eyes, streaming down her face in perfectly thin lines. She looked down, away from the face of the man who saved her.

"Thank you."

Captain Falcon gave a smug smirk, though on the inside, he felt like crying as well. Had he arrived a few seconds too late, well, let's just say he would have been crying for other reasons.

"Any time," he said.

They stayed in that position for a few more seconds as they tried catching their breaths. Whatever doubts Falcon had about Lucina's dreams certainly were gone by this point. He was actually pretty content playing the hero for a change. Although, admittedly, he may have been enjoying the physical position he was in a little _too_ much.

"Uh, you can get off me now Captain Falcon," muttered Lucina embarrassingly.

"Oh, right sorry," replied the F-Zero racer with haste.

But just as he was about to get off of her, Ike had conveniently ran into the room.

"What is going on in here?" he asked.

Falcon still had his hands pinning down Lucina's wrists on the bed, her previously pale cheeks now showing signs of redness, while Falcon retained a sheepish look on his face.

"Um… This isn't what it looks like."


	8. Villainous Suspicion

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p>Chapter 8: Villainous Suspicion<p>

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><p>After promptly hopping off of Lucina's body, apologizing for the supposedly reckless move, and explaining to Ike numerous times that Falcon wasn't trying to do anything perverted, the F-Zero racer and the mercenary were finally ready to explain what they witnessed from the security room. It seemed however that even they themselves were unsure of what transpired through the lens of the camera. If what R.O.B. was saying was correct, then it looked like Lucina was in more trouble than she realized.<p>

"You were strangling yourself in your sleep," said Ike seriously, "with your bare hands."

Lucina raised her eyebrows in surprise. Sitting upright in her bed, she studied her ice-cold palms under the artificial light of the room.

"My… hands?" she replied.

"We know it sounds crazy but it totally happened," continued Falcon. "You had your hands wrapped around your neck and you looked like you were wrestling with something."

"That can't be," said the swordswoman, a puzzled look on her face. "I was attacked by a monster that tried to strangle me. Did you see it?"

Ike glanced at Falcon who shrugged his shoulders.

"There was no one in here except you," he replied. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Lucina couldn't believe what she was hearing. All this time she thought she was being assaulted by demonic creatures from Hell, when in fact, she was merely doing harm to herself. She felt the bruising wounds around her neck, causing her to wince in pain.

"Could it be that…" she started. "That the monsters were just an illusion?"

"It could be," replied Ike. "It would explain what happened tonight anyway. The monsters may not be real, but the damage to your body definitely is."

Something had certainly possessed her to drive her to such lengths. As even R.O.B. had stated, it was impossible for the human body to perform so much damage to itself without stopping at some point. Even still, the thought of someone strangling themselves to death with their bare hands was ridiculous. Someone or something must have been behind it all.

Despite being saved by Captain Falcon, Lucina hated how she couldn't fight back against the monster on her own. To lose battle after battle so consistently was a disgrace to being called a wielder of the Falchion. It was embarrassing and, truth be told, a part of her wished the helmet-wearing racer had never saved her in the first place. She wanted to rid herself of these creatures on her own and learn of their origins on her own. What kind of swordsman could she call herself if she couldn't do anything without the help of her friends?

"So there are two elements at work here," she said, glancing at the Smashers. "One of which enters my dream at night, and the other that takes control of my body."

"It could be one thing responsible for both," replied Ike, "but who knows. We don't even know where these nightmares are coming from let alone what they're trying to do."

"They're trying to kill me," said Lucina with a frown. "Surely you must have deduced at least that by now?"

"Well yeah," replied the swordsman. "But for what purpose? When we spoke to R.O.B., he said that it was near impossible for anything to get into the mansion. Yet some evil presence is certainly around whenever you fall asleep, and whatever it is, it's controlling your body and making you hurt yourself. Is there anyone you know of that would do that to you?"

One name did come to mind, but Lucina didn't want to believe it, nor did she want to tell Falcon or Ike anything about it. Her history with the Fell Dragon was something that she mainly kept to herself and only ever talked about with Robin. She made a mental note to ask the young tactician about any possible ties Grima could have to the nightmares.

"No," she replied, lowering her gaze. "I know no such person."

"Well that's a relief," said Falcon with a smirk. "And here I thought we were going to have another crisis on our hands."

"Um, we kind of do, Falcon," muttered Ike. "Lucina's life is at stake here."

"Hey, I'm just saying, at least we don't have to go around the mansion asking people if they know anything about this."

"_Oh gods, anything but that_," thought Lucina internally. She still couldn't bring herself to explain to the other Smashes what the heck's been going on with her life over the past few days.

"Although, now that I think about it," said Falcon as he put a hand to his chin, "maybe the reason why the barrier doesn't work is because the person responsible for all this is already inside the mansion!"

"And which person would that be?" asked Ike curiously. "The only ones in the mansion are us, the others, Master Hand, and the Waddle Dees."

"Well those Waddle Dees _do_ look really suspicious," said Falcon, narrowing his eyes. "They're always giving me creepy stares like I owe them something…"

As a matter of fact, Falcon owed the Waddle Dees a whole month of his time to helping them clean up the mansion after causing a mass flooding in the house from a clogged toilet. There was a lot of water damage, but Master Hand could not afford to postpone the daily matches, thus the Smashers had no choice but to go about their regular lives walking over damp carpets and seeing peeling wallpaper in the halls. That happened some time long before the new tournament had even started.

"Should we start questioning the others?" asked Ike.

"No, there's no need," said Lucina calmly, though internally she was praying for dear life that they wouldn't say anything. "No one in the mansion has anything against me; at least not to this degree."

"That's what you think," replied Falcon, crossing his arms. "There's more than a few sketchy characters roaming the mansion grounds. You just haven't been here long enough to get used to them."

"Really? Like who?"

"Hm, let's see…" Falcon began counting on his fingers. "Well first there's Ganondorf, the king of evil himself. No one likes that guy. And he's got some major issues trust me. He's always yelling at me whenever I say anything."

"_I wonder why…_" thought Ike as he rolled his eyes.

"Then there's Bowser, the king of the Koopas. He's a real hard-ass, but not so much of a bad guy after he's had a few drinks. But when he's sober, you better watch out, because that guy's lookin' for nothing but trouble. And when you have a reputation for kidnapping princesses, what kind of image is that supposed to give you anyway? I could stop there but let's keep going. There's King Dedede, but that guy's so clumsy he can't even walk without tripping over his own two feet. Wario's another suspicious character. He's just a greedy guy who only looks out for himself, a real natural with the ladies. And don't even get me started on Robin…"

The swordsmen both looked up in confusion at that last statement.

"What about Robin?" asked Lucina curiously.

"Erm, did I say that out loud?" replied Falcon.

Ike cleared his throat rather loudly, diverting the girl's attention away from the F-Zero racer.

"I think what Falcon's getting at, Lucina," he said, "is that your nightly terrorizer could very well be someone within the walls of the mansion."

"Wouldn't the security cameras catch someone orchestrating something like that?" she asked.

"The cameras only watch over the public areas of the building," said the swordsman. "Anything can happen behind closed doors."

Lucina pondered on this for a few seconds. Was it possible that one of the villain Smashers could be behind all of this? She didn't recall being on negative terms with any of the mansion's residents, so the thought that one of the Smashers would do this to spite her just didn't seem realistic. To terrorize her for the mere enjoyment of watching her scream, well, she wouldn't let that go past someone like Ganondorf or Bowser. There were villains in the mansion who were known for being troublemakers after all. When she really thought about it, neither Ganondorf nor Bowser had taken the time to visit her while she was lying wounded the hospital wing.

"Perhaps questioning the villains would be the next step to solving this mystery," she said, her eyebrows furrowed as she continued thinking. "Even if they know nothing about this, surely their knowledge of dark magic and illusions would benefit us in some way."

"We can do that for you," said Ike reassuringly. "You have to make sure you get your rest whenever you can. These past few nights haven't been good for you I can imagine."

"I volunteer to be Lucina's bodyguard until these nightmares stop," interjected Falcon as he raised a hand.

"What?" replied Lucina. "That isn't necessary, Captain Falcon."

She didn't want the others to think she needed special attention. She was a Smasher for goodness' sake! Didn't that qualify her as being one of the strongest fighters in the known universe? Well that's what it said when she signed the contract anyways…

"But it is!" replied Falcon, holding up a fist. "You saw what happened tonight! How are you supposed to defend yourself when one of those freaks can brainwash you into attacking, well, yourself!? You really want to risk that again?"

"I appreciate the gesture," said the swordswoman sternly, "but I do not need you to act as my 'bodyguard'. So long as I have my sword, those creatures will not be able to defeat me."

"Lucina," said Ike with a small sigh, "I think Falcon has a point. It's been three nights in a row where you've been attacked in your sleep. If someone was nearby to help you or to even wake you up, it would be much safer than just relying on yourself. What if you can't get to your sword in time?"

"It won't be like this again," she said seriously. "I'll be ready for it next time. I'll stay up every night until we determine what's causing these nightmares to occur."

"That's crazy!" replied Falcon. "You can't stay up all night! How can you expect to fight when you're tired? Not to mention, there's still the weekly brawls you have to participate in!"

"I'll make it work," she said, closing her eyes. "I just need to be able to endure this one day at a time. But for now, no bodyguard. I need you two to get as much information as you can on what the villains might know about this. And try to be inconspicuous about it; I don't want the others questioning me about this matter. The sooner we put an end to all of this, the sooner we can all have a good night's sleep."

Falcon was about to say something in objection, but before he knew it, she had slid into the blankets, rolled towards the wall, and pulled the sheets over her head.

"Don't be like this, Lucina," said Ike with concern. "We want to help you out as much as we can."

Despite his efforts, the swordswoman did not budge from her position. Even Falcon was starting to get annoyed at this point.

"Okay, you wanna be that way? Fine!" he said. "But don't think that just because you want it like this means we're just going to turn our heads! R.O.B.'s got this place under surveillance, so all he has to do is give me a call and I'll be gunning it over here whether you like it or not!"

Still, she did not sway, and tried breathing deeply in order to simulate the act of falling asleep. After about a minute of trying to talk to her, the two Smashers eventually called it quits and turned off the light before exiting the room. As they left, Lucina suddenly regretted dismissing Falcon's offer, but did not have the heart to say anything back to them. She ended up lying in her bed for quite a while before falling asleep, and she didn't plan on waking up until at least midmorning.

After closing the door gently, the F-Zero racer and the mercenary met in the hallway just outside the hospital wing.

"So now what?" asked Falcon seriously. "She pretty much just kicked us out of her room for no reason."

"She's probably tired," replied Ike, though he honestly had no idea why she would turn away from them in such a stressful time. "She's missed sleep for the past few days. You'd be cranky too if you had to go through what she did."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't just tell my friends to screw off like that," responded Falcon with a frown.

"Well, we'll make do with what we have. The first thing we should do is meet back with R.O.B. in the security room to tell him what happened. After that, I guess we can turn in for the night. We can meet at lunchtime tomorrow. I don't know about you, but I really need to get some sleep."

"You're telling me. Let's just get this over with so we can go to bed. That robot's probably watching us right now as we speak."

The two made their way back up the hall and towards the other side of the mansion where the security room was. Along the way, they had passed by Little Mac, who was heading towards the training room for his daily exercises. When he asked about why Ike and Falcon were up so late, they told him they were volunteering for security duty in order to assist R.O.B. with his job. The young boxer was completely understanding, but he also asked why he had heard footsteps running past his door earlier in the night. To cover their motives, Ike had stated that the noise was caused by himself and Falcon dashing to one of the rooms in order to inspect the camera there. It came as a surprise to both the mercenary and the F-Zero racer, however, when Little Mac explained that he did not hear two, but three sets of footsteps outside his room at different points in the evening.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I didn't realize how long the conversation between Lucina, Falcon, and Ike would take, thus, the stuff that I originally planned for this chapter will be pushed to the next one. Thank you to my reviewers for their continued support. Has your favorite Smash Bros. character appeared in this story yet? If not, I'll try my best to fit them in somewhere!


	9. Ike's Dilemma

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p>Chapter 9: Ike's Dilemma<p>

* * *

><p>When Falcon and Ike had asked R.O.B. about this mysterious third character that Little Mac mentioned wandering the mansion, the robot didn't have the slightest idea what they were talking about. From the time Ike had initially left the security room to the time he returned, the Robotic Operating Buddy had not seen anyone roaming the halls (with the exception of a particular short boxer of course). Nothing ever slipped past R.O.B.'s watchful gaze, as he was perfectly capable of analyzing multiple monitors simultaneously. Thus, the two confused Smashers had no choice but to conclude that the person Little Mac had told them about did not exist. At least, it made them feel better thinking about it like that anyway.<p>

R.O.B had witnessed everything that transpired in Lucina's room, but oddly enough he could not identify what would drive her to such limits to strangle herself. No creature that he knew of possessed such awesome mind-controlling powers, and even if one did exist there was no way it would have been able to penetrate the barrier of the mansion. Despite R.O.B.'s questions as to what on earth could have caused such a ruckus, Falcon and Ike were bound by their word to the girl and did their best to come up with an excuse, saying that she had been a "real heavy sleepwalker lately" and so on. The robot was hesitant to accept such an outlandish response after clearly seeing something paranormal was happening on screen, but any answer was better than no answer, and R.O.B had no choice but to store that conclusion into his memory banks. By the time the two Smashers had returned to their rooms for the night (or morning if you prefer), it was already 6:00 in the morning. The sun was barely climbing over the horizon.

Monday morning was one of the fastest mornings Captain Falcon had ever experienced in his life since he more or less slept through it all. He kept having dreams about Lucina putting her hands around her neck, or utilizing some sort of rope in order to do the job. The supposedly scary dreams would quickly erase themselves and be replaced with the bizarre scenarios that dreams normally transform in to. For example, there was an instance where Lucina's bed was strapped to the top of his Blue Falcon while he was racing down the legendary tracks of Mute City, while at the same time R.O.B. was sitting in the backseat (the car didn't even have a backseat) watching some cheesy horror flick about a deranged serial killer with claws for a right hand. Nevertheless, Falcon's tiredness level was overwhelming to even himself. When he got up and dressed for the rest of the day, he made a mental note not to mention any of this crap to Ike.

The F-Zero racer made his way down the large stairs of the mansion and towards the dining room for breakfast, which was actually lunch since it was around noon. All the while he was thinking about Lucina, wondering if she would be okay on her own. He was snapped out of his trance when he opened the grand doors and entered the room, his nostrils instantly filling with the crispy aroma of cooking hamburgers and hotdogs.

"Well, look who's finally awake!" said a cheery Pit, sitting down at the large dining table with Palutena, Pac-Man and Villager. Villager gave Falcon a happy wave while biting into an unusually black hotdog bun, while Pac-Man gave a wink, along with a series of obscure pixelated sounds.

"You guys won't believe the night I had," replied Falcon with a dramatic arm-stretch. "Man, something smells good in here."

Waddle Dees were bustling up and down the room collecting plates and other utensils left by Smashers who had previously eaten lunch. Among the four Smashers at the table, there were still a few others scattered about such as Toon Link, Charizard, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Princess Peach. Bowser Jr., Iggy, Larry, and Lemmy were sitting in a cluster midway down the long table snickering about something, while further down at the end, Ike was sitting next to Ness, who was sitting across from Rosalina. A lone Waddle Dee suddenly approached Falcon with a plate over his head, offering the cooked food to the racer generously.

"Oh, don't tell me," said Falcon with a frown. "Game and Watch is cooking today."

Of course, this was pretty much given as the hotdog and hamburger on the plate were both completely black, as well as two-dimensional. Falcon cocked his head to the side slightly, watching the thin items become slimmer with his angle of view.

"It's not so bad once you get used to it," said Pit as he downed his hamburger in one bite.

"It's light as well," chimed Palutena with a smile. "Really easy on the hips. Don't you think so Pit?"

"Erm, of course Lady Palutena!" replied the angel, his cheeks turning a slight red.

Normally, the Waddle Dees would be in charge of cooking meals for the Smashers. They were pretty good at it, and no one really ever complained (except Wario, arguing that portions never get distributed evenly). If, however, a Smasher was feeling up to the task, they would be more than welcome to cook for their fellow mansion residents. And just as Falcon suspected, various beeping noises could be heard from the kitchen, hinting that Mr. Game and Watch was humming some sort of 8-bit tune while he worked. He was probably wearing that dorky chef hat as well.

"Aw man," moaned Falcon. "Now I have to eat like fifty burgers in order for it to feel like one!"

He reluctantly accepted the plate from the Waddle Dee and carried it across the room to where Ike, Ness, and Rosalina were sitting. Pac-Man just shrugged his shoulders and continued scarfing down plate after plate nonchalantly. Along Falcon's stroll, Iggy thought it would be hilarious to pull a prank, and naturally stuck his foot out in order to trip the F-Zero racer.

"Whoa!" cried Falcon as he stumbled across the carpeted floor, nearly dropping his food in the process. "Hey watch it you little prick, or you're gonna be seeing stars until next Wednesday!"

The Koopa kids just replied with obnoxious laughter, mocking Captain Falcon by childishly mimicking his trademark Falcon Punch. Falcon was perfectly prepared to shove a Falcon Kick up their asses, but Ike hollered for him to come over.

"Don't bother with them," said the mercenary, "they're just kids."

"Not to mention _Bowser's_ kids," commented Ness as he chewed on his 2D hotdog. "You don't want to get involved with _that_."

"I hate being shown up like that…" spat Falcon as he sat down next to Rosalina.

"The stars granted me a reading last night," hummed Rosalina melodically as she fed part of a 2D burger to her golden Luma, which was sitting in the middle of the table. "They said that those who are normally light-hearted will be burdened by a tragic ordeal."

The Luma squeaked with joy as the delicious food entered its "mouth" (well, it was kind of just… molding into its body like water to a sponge). Falcon reached over and grabbed a black bottle of 2D ketchup, squirting its contents onto his meal as he mumbled some things under his breath.

"You do seem kind of out of it today, Captain Falcon," said Ness with concern. "What time did you go to bed last night?"

"Hey, I'm not out of it!" protested the racer. "I'm perfectly normal! Just ask Ike!"

The other two Smashers turned to the mercenary, but he seemed to jump at attention upon eye contact.

"Oh yeah, he's fine," said Ike casually. "We were up late last night doing… um…"

"Doing?..." asked Ness.

"Doing…" continued Falcon. "…Uh… Parcheesi!"

"What is 'Doing Parcheesi'?" asked Rosalina curiously.

"Uh, I meant we were playing Parcheesi!" replied Falcon. "Yeah! Sunday night is board game night for us. We started a Parcheesi tournament and it takes about twenty games to decide a winner. That's why we were up so late."

Falcon gave a subtly confident wink to Ike, who could only shake his head in disappointment.

"Hey that sounds like fun!" replied Ness, turning to Ike. "Could I join your tournament sometime?"

Ike glanced at Falcon, looking for an answer.

"Um. Sure," was all he could come up with.

"This 'Doing Parcheesi' sounds like an interesting engagement," commented Rosalina elegantly. "I too wish to join you on this excursion, if you would kindly accept me."

"Eheh," muttered Falcon with a sheepish smile. "We wouldn't want it any other way!"

It seemed that their plan at keeping Lucina's nightmares a secret was already starting to backfire on them. Ike had to keep reminding himself that their main objective was to locate one of the villains and question them about the ghoulish happenings. Unfortunately, the closest thing they had to a villain in the room were the Koopalings, but it was pointless negotiating with them anyway since they never took anything seriously.

Ike was actually surprised that he and Falcon were able to cover themselves with such a ridiculous excuse. It wasn't like Ness to be so gullible either, as the boy was gifted with abnormally strong psychic powers. Rosalina as well had her own fair share of cosmic powers, granting her the ability to manipulate the gravity around various objects in her vicinity, including her own body. They were both indeed two Smashers with very powerful minds, yet they were fooled by this supposed "board game night." Rosalina, much like Lucina and most of the newcomers for the tournament, had already built a strong sense of trust between all the Smashers they talk to anyways.

The next few minutes of conversation were pretty much nothing but small talk. Lucina's condition would pop up occasionally, but of course Falcon and Ike could only pretend they knew nothing of the matter. Apparently, Lucina had not said much to any of the Smashers, not even her closer friends. It made Ike feel all the more committed to stay true to his word and not let the swordswoman down, especially since she was still tied to that hospital bed. Falcon and Ike could both see in each other's eyes, however, that they wanted to talk about their plan of attack against the villains since that was one thing they didn't really go over in the previous night. This wasn't something they could easily discuss with so many Smashers in the room either. The best thing to do was to more or less wait for all the excitement to die down, and, more importantly, for that freakin' Luma to stop making so many squeaking sounds.

"I don't understand," said Falcon as he stared at the chubby piece of star meat in front of him. "How can this thing eat when it doesn't even have a mouth?"

The cosmic princess chuckled, while the Luma made a pouty face at the F-Zero's racer's blunt comment.

"It is indeed a wonderment of nature in itself," replied Rosalina poetically.

"It's kind of creepy if you ask me," muttered Ness. "The Waddle Dees eat food like that too."

Falcon took a long swig from his glass of Sprite, which was thankfully three-dimensional. Ike was too busy munching on the copious amount of 2D burgers on his plate to notice.

"Don't say that to their faces," commented the mercenary, "or you might find yourself in the middle of a brawl."

Suddenly, Falcon spat out all of his soda onto Ness' face in quite the cartoonish manner. The PSI boy didn't even have time to react.

"Aw crap! I almost forgot!" cried Falcon as he got up from his seat and ran towards the exit.

"What's wrong?" called Ike after him.

"I have a match scheduled with Meta Knight this afternoon!" replied Falcon. "I'm not letting that blue puffball beat me again!"

Ike responded with a sigh while Rosalina and Luma giggled in unison. Ness, on the other hand, was trying to get the stickiness out of his hair.

"Why me…" he groaned.

Falcon bounded past the other Smashers in the room, but stopped at the door when it opened before him. Wario stepped into the room, his nose whiffing this way and that way at the smell of cooking burgers.

"Ah, 2D barbeque! My favorite!" he said with a toothy grin. He opened his eyes to see Falcon standing in front of him. "Huh? What do you want?"

"Out of my way fatass! Move!" shouted Falcon as he darted past the Italian man.

Wario spun around on his heels as the F-Zero racer blew past him, but quickly regained his footing and began chasing after the man.

"Who are you calling a fatass!?" he yelled. "Hey, come back here!"

As the sound of Wario's whining voice disappeared down the halls, the group of Smashers sitting close to the conflict burst into laughter. Ike was just sitting at the other end of the table with a hand over his face.

"_Dammit, Falcon. Why didn't you tell me earlier you had a match today?_" he thought.

"Are you alright, Ike?" asked Rosalina.

The mercenary seemed to jump at attention again.

"Yes, I'm fine thanks."

Not true. As a matter of fact, Ike was feeling pretty annoyed that Falcon had not told him about his schedule in the previous night. There were loads of opportunities when the racer could have said something, but the thought must have never occurred to him. This pretty much just set their plan back by a few hours at least. Worst case scenario, Ike was going to have to interrogate these villains all by himself. Thinking about it, he wasn't sure if he felt totally comfortable standing toe to toe with Ganondorf.

"Hey Ike," said Ness all of a sudden. "What do you think happened to Lucina the other night?"

Of course, he was referring to the night when Lucina was attacked by the mirror monster, but none of the other Smashers ever witnessed it. All they saw was Lucina's mangled body strung out across her bed, bleeding intensely and surely on the verge of death. An act such as this could only have been caused by some outside force.

"I don't know," replied Ike, turning his attention away from the Smashers. "The size of her wounds hinted that she was cut from a sword, but we weren't able to find an assassin anywhere."

"Is it true that her own blade was tainted with blood?" asked Rosalina curiously.

"Yes," replied the mercenary with some hesitation. "We can't say for certain what caused the damage though. For all we know, someone could have broken into her room and attacked her with her own Falchion."

"But who would do that?" said Ness.

"None of the Smashers would, I can assure you. At least, I hope they wouldn't…"

He closed his eyes to ponder for a bit, but was shaken out of it when he felt a thin hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Samus standing behind him clad in her Zero Suit, who was also accompanied by none other than the Monado-wielder, Shulk.

"May we join you?" asked the bounty huntress casually.

Ike glanced between the two Smashers momentarily. Never in his life had Samus or Shulk approached him to have a friendly "chat". More often than not he found himself pitted in battle against one of the two instead. Samus was never one to talk much anyways. As for Shulk, well, he was more of an acquaintance. Ike was surprised to see Samus walking with _anyone_ since she normally kept to herself.

"Sure, lunch is still on," replied Ike as he gestured to the two seats next to Rosalina. The two Smashers rounded the table and sat down, Shulk next to the princess and Samus next to him. Only, when Samus sat down, an outrageous farting noise erupted from her seat, causing her to jump and her face to turn pitch red. The Koopalings down the table suddenly burst into laughter, banging their heads and slamming their fists on the dining room table like maniacs. Upon inspection of the seat, Samus noticed that an oversized whoopee cushion had been placed there previously, waiting for an unsuspecting victim to sit down. The bounty huntress' face immediately twisted into pure anger.

"You little shits are DEAD MEAT!" she threatened, clutching the cushion in her fist.

The Koopa kids promptly fled from the room, hollering and hooting the whole way. They may have been troublemakers, but even they knew not to tangle with the unholy wrath of Samus Aran. Other Smashers in the room giggled to themselves or just rolled their eyes at yet another "brilliant" prank performed by Iggy Koopa. Shulk gave a small round of applause at Samus' ability to clear a room.

"Good show!" he said with his posh accent. "For a second there, I'd thought we'd need to call Dr. Mario."

Samus tossed the whoopee cushion on the table, which Luma eventually sat on for fun. Thankfully, the little star wasn't nearly heavy enough to cause the obscene sounds.

"I don't have time for them," she replied sternly. "Right now there are more important matters to discuss."

Ike couldn't help but cock an eyebrow at this. Not only did Samus want to talk, she wanted to talk about something she deemed "important". Knowing his luck, she was going to question him about the one thing he was trying to avoid discussing.

"Ike," she said, taking her seat yet again. "What do you know about Lucina's accident?"

This question caused Ness to look up at the mercenary curiously, but Ike maintained eye contact with the bounty huntress. Her eyes were cold, catlike, and pierced him as if she could see right through. Naturally, this made him feel a little uncomfortable, but he held his ground as best as any experienced soldier would.

"Where did this come from all of a sudden?" he asked, because quite honestly, he didn't know. Samus was never one to get involved with such affairs. Shulk, on the other hand, Ike knew very well to be another one of Lucina's trusted friends, and would undoubtedly be concerned about the girl's wellbeing.

"I apologize for approaching you like this all of a sudden," she replied, "but I've noticed that you and Falcon have been spending a lot of time with Lucina as of late. Naturally, I figured you of all people would have an idea of what took place in her room that night because Shulk sure as hell doesn't."

The Homs boy shrugged his shoulders at her comment.

"I did talk with her while she was in the hospital wing," he said. "She didn't want to say much to me about it though. I found it kind of odd considering she's usually pretty open with me."

Ike frowned, but his reaction was more directed at Samus' statement. Had she been watching him from the beginning?

"For someone who makes herself out to be so independent, you sound pretty worried about Lucina," muttered Ike, trying to turn the conversation elsewhere.

"Aren't you?" asked Samus seriously. "An injury like that only leads to the suspicion that we had an intruder that night."

"A wolf in sheep's clothing," hummed Rosalina as she twirled her fingers over the Luma to entertain it. "Even the smallest of moons can be mistaken for a neighbouring planet."

"That's impossible," scoffed the mercenary. "I've seen this mansion's security system with my own eyes and have confirmed it with R.O.B. There is absolutely no way anything out there can get into this mansion, so the thought of anyone trying to break in is completely nullified."

"I wouldn't go so far as to say that," said Shulk, glancing down the table to make sure other Smashers or Waddle Dees weren't listening to their conversation.

Ike stared at Shulk with a somewhat confused look.

"What do you mean?" asked Ness all of a sudden.

"The Monado gave me a vision last night," said Shulk, closing his eyes. "In it, I saw Lucina, and… she was in trouble."

Ike's arms slowly dropped to the table, startling the star creature. He had forgotten that Shulk was blessed with the ability to see into the future, albeit only for a short time. The visions were always accurate, and always depicted someone dear to him in a time of crisis. If the proper actions were not taken, then the events depicted by the Monado's visions would undoubtedly come true, not matter how severe the situation. Incidentally, the length and intensity of these visions always depended on Shulk's relationship to the person in the visions.

"What kind of trouble?" asked Ike with concern.

"It was hard to tell," replied the boy, "but from what I could see, she was immobilized… and she was in a lot of pain. There was someone else there, but his back was turned to me."

Ness fidgeted uneasily in his seat whereas Rosalina continued playing with her Luma nonchalantly. Ike was dumbfounded, stricken between whether or not he should take Shulk's words for truth.

"If we don't do something soon, something bad is bound to happen," said Samus. "I knew something was wrong the moment I brawled her a few days ago. She seemed distressed or distracted, and she couldn't fight nearly as well as she normally did in the tournament."

"So you're saying that if things continue on this course," muttered Ike, "the event you saw in your vision will likely take place?"

"Not just likely," replied Shulk. "It will without a doubt unfold itself into our time and become reality. So the sooner we start doing something about it, the sooner we can change the future. This is the power of the Monado."

Ike had no idea what he was talking about, with this constantly referring to the "Monado", but he knew enough to conclude that what Shulk was saying was indeed the truth. If the situation were to continue on its regular path, Lucina would only end up in more danger than before. Perhaps the best course of action in this case then would be to do the opposite of what Ike was trying to do this whole time.

"_Perhaps I should tell them everything_," he thought. "_I know she said she didn't want anyone else to know yet, but I don't know if I'm willing to take that chance. Any one of these nights could be her last…_"

Ike looked up to see Rosalina, Samus, and Shulk staring at him, waiting for some kind of response. He hated how Rosalina and Ness had both been dragged into this conversation accidentally, but in a mansion where nearly fifty Smashers resided, it was hard keeping secrets from anyone anyways. News always travelled fast in these walls, especially thanks to big-mouth Sonic, as well as that sleazy Duck Hunt Dog. After a few moments' hesitation, Ike succumbed to his conscience and finally caved in.

"Okay," he said. "You talked me into it. But what I'm about to tell the four of you, I'd like you to keep just between us. For now at least."

The others nodded in agreement while the Luma pouted for not being counted as one of them. Samus would have preferred it if all of the Smashers were in on Lucina's situation, but for now, she was content with just getting a better idea of the big picture.

"From what I understand, it all started last Friday after Lucina, Falcon, Pikachu and I sat down to watch a scary movie…"

And so, he told them of the first night, when Lucina was supposedly approached by an ominous ghostly being with claws. He told of the second night, where Lucina's "accident" was nothing short of an unidentifiable copycat breaking through her balcony door and cutting her to ribbons. He also mentioned the third night in the security room, what he witnessed from there, and how Lucina described the attack as someone putting cold hands around her neck, attempting to strangle her to death. As he told his fellow Smashers of the stories, he couldn't help but feel as if he had betrayed his dear friend. She had entrusted him with a duty, and he completely failed to uphold it. Deep down inside Ike knew, however, that he was doing the right thing. For he was willing to do whatever it took to keep Lucina away from Shulk's horrifying vision.

While explaining the situation to the others, Ike couldn't help but wonder why Lucina would want to keep her nightly attacks a secret in the first place. It wasn't like her to act in such a selfish and isolated manner. His relayed stories to the Smashers made him realize this, and soon the mercenary found himself with a series of questions that even _he_ did not know the answers to.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I wanted to give Lucy a break this chapter since she's been through so much crap already. You can expect her to make her return in chapter 10. Do you see why I asked about your favorite characters last chapter? I nailed a good portion of them this chapter and I'll try to give other random characters some spotlight in this story, kind of like what I did to the Koopa Kids and Wario. Thanks for reading the longest chapter in the story thus far and I'll see you next time. Ciao!


	10. Robin Finds a Clue

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p>Chapter 10: Robin Finds a Clue<p>

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><p>It was around 11:00 when Lucina awoke from her heavy slumber. She hadn't been visited by any evil creatures since Ike and Falcon left her, but even if she did, she doubted she would have had the energy to deal with them. She was feeling better however, and took note of this when she realized that the sword wounds from before had nearly healed. It was miraculous how something so severe could be undone thanks to some antibiotics… and magic. Unfortunately, this boost in her spirit did not make her feel better for casting her friends off so bluntly like she had done in the previous night. She planned on apologizing later, but at the same time hoped that the F-Zero racer and the mercenary were making some progress with their mission.<p>

Dr. Mario had stopped by sometime before lunch to check on her condition. Other than her apparent hungriness, she was feeling like her regular self again. A lone Waddle Dee had wandered into the room with a plate of 2D hamburgers and hotdogs, which the girl accepted gratefully before the servant scurried back to work. After a bit of discussion, the doctor had concluded that she was fit to leave her hospital bed and rejoin her fellow Smashers with the daily tournament matches, but suggested staying one extra night "just in-a case". He was still dumbfounded, however, as to what incident caused her grievous wounds in the first place. She ended up lying to Dr. Mario, stating that it was the cause of some complex sword technique she was trying to practice in her room, hence why the Falchion was stained with so much of her blood. The explanation was believable and not unheard of at all. There was a time the doctor could recall when Link had nearly smashed a hole through the floor of his room when he was messing around with his Megaton Hammer. That incident, however, was completely justifiable according to Link, but none of the other Smashers really understood the reason why.

Eventually the doctor left Lucina to finish her lunch in peace, and surprisingly, she did not receive any other visits from Smashers until the afternoon. There were the typically concerned ones such as Marth, Luigi, Lucas, and Kirby, which Lucina had to reassure that everything was fine, giving the same excuse that she had given to Dr. Mario. Marth in particular was adamant that there was something she wasn't telling him, but as much as she hated deceiving the Hero-King, she just couldn't bring herself to confess. She wanted to know the truth for herself before saying anything about it to other Smashers. Eventually everyone left her to her lonesome again, but she was perfectly fine with relaxing in the hospital wing for a few more minutes to reflect on the previous night. She was still wondering what kind of monster could take control of her body so forcefully like that. Her train of thought was soon interrupted, however, when a sudden series of knocks could be heard coming from the door.

"Who is it?" she called from the bed, adjusting her hospital gown to look more presentable.

"It's me, Robin," replied the muffled voice from the other side. "May I come in?"

"Certainly," she said with a smile, which the tactician noticed on his way in and couldn't help but return the gesture. He began approaching her bedside, a couple of large books packed together in his arm.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, sitting down next to her and putting down the books.

"I'm doing better," she replied as she sat up into a better position. "There's no pain at all now. Dr. Mario said that I'll be good after one more night."

"That's good to hear," he said, though he seemed to be in thought for some reason. "Did you have another nightmare last night?"

Lucina was hesitant to reply. All she could remember was that icy cold hand clutched around her neck, squeezing every last bit of her life's energy out of her body. She thought she recalled blacking out, but all she could see was Falcon's helmeted face staring down at her.

"I did," she said. "And it was terrible."

She told him about the hand, for that was the only thing she could place on whatever creature had assaulted her. She also explained that Ike and Falcon had been watching her from the security room, and that the images displayed on the screen were something that none of them wanted to believe. Had Falcon not shown up when he did, she would have died most definitely.

"I see," said the young mage, putting a hand to his chin. "So the cameras showed that _you_ were really the one hurting yourself?"

"I was," replied Lucina with a sigh. "But though that may be true, the monster still appeared in my dream. From my perspective, it felt as if the creature was strangling me to death."

"If that's the case, then it also may be safe to assume that you were the one who caused damage to yourself on the first and second night as well. The monsters that appeared in your dreams still differ, however."

"Were you able to find anything?" asked Lucina hopefully, to which Robin couldn't help but smirk. He had been hoping that she would ask him that question.

"That I have," he replied, "but it's something I find very peculiar. I'll show you."

The tactician lifted up one of his heavy books and placed it on his lap, causing Lucina to lean forward in order to get a better view. The book in Robin's hands looked in good condition, as if it had not been used recently or at all in its lifetime. She noticed a Pokéball symbol on the cover as he opened it, a distinctive icon she knew related to the mansion's residential Pokémon. What did Pokémon have to do with any of this?

"This may sound a bit ridiculous," said Robin, "so you're going to have to humor me while I go over this."

Lucina nodded in response, silently wondering what on earth the scholar was getting at.

"I had to scour the mansion's library for any kind of encyclopaedia on mythical creatures," explained the tactician. "It took some time, but based on the description of your first encounter with the creature, I was able to come up with this." He turned to a bookmarked page of the encyclopaedia, stopping on a page referring to a dark purple ghost-type Pokémon. "This is Gengar, also known as the 'Shadow Pokémon,'" said Robin. "In the Pokémon world, it is known for being a practical jokester, often hiding in the shadows of unwary travellers and jumping out to surprise or attack them. Does this look anything like your monster?"

Upon seeing the sample image in the book, Lucina could instantly make the connections. From its beady eyes to its sinister grin, to the sharp claws along its hand, this Pokémon bore a striking resemblance to that of the creature that she saw on the first night. This Gengar, however, looked much less menacing than the one that attacked Lucina and did not look nearly as large or demonic either.

"It's similar," she replied as she studied the picture, "but this can't be true. The creature that I saw was able to speak to me, yet most Pokémon are incapable of such a thing." She felt a small chill run up and down her spine as the creepy words of the entity echoed through her mind again.

"It's possible that this one can talk," explained Robin. "Though not a very common trait, speaking cases have been known to occur with some psychic, ghost, and dark-type Pokémon. The exception to this would be Lucario of course, but he is only able to because of his ability to manipulate aura. Don't worry; I figured the same thing and did a little research on this as well just to be sure."

Well, it wasn't an exact match, but the Gengar in the book and the monster from Lucina's dream both had similar characteristics. Assuming that the first creature was a Pokémon, however, what could cause it to attack her out of the blue like that? Also, was it possible that the other two dreams were merely Pokémon trying to pull a few pranks?

"Was the mysterious swordsman a Pokémon as well?" asked Lucina.

"Not at all," replied Robin. "That I can say for sure."

He reached for the other book, a somewhat beat up and torn piece of work. The crest on the front cover looked exactly like a Smash Ball, and there were various slips of paper and sticky notes protruding from a lot of the pages.

"I found this after some digging through the archives," he said. "It contains records of some of the Smash Brothers' most dangerous enemies."

He began flipping through the pages, Lucina watching intently as colorful images of various enemies and items passed by her view. Had she and Robin partaken in the Subspace Emissary some seven years ago, they would have recognized a lot of the monsters, such as the Primids, and the R.O.B. clones. There were a series of pages he had to turn to, categorized by a sticky note that read, "FALSE CHARACTERS."

"During the Subspace Emissary," explained Robin, "the Smashers had encountered creatures called 'Shadow Bugs'. The Shadow Bugs could mold themselves into our fellow fighters, adopting the name 'False Characters.' These False Characters could mirror the Smashers' moves and abilities with perfection. They were also known to be stronger, more precise, and less forgiving. It led the Smashers to believe that False Characters were artificial soldiers that were merely tools for Tabuu and his Subspace Army. Lucina, I believe that the creature you encountered on the second night was your False Character."

He stopped on a page that displayed a picture of Marth, though the Altean swordsman looked terribly sick and had some kind of demonic aura surrounding him. Lucina could only analyze the image with discomfort.

"_It looks just like that other swordsman_," she thought. "_But… why does it still have a face?_"

"After discovering this, I had to wonder," said Robin. "How do a ghost-type Pokémon and a member of the Subspace Army relate to the nightmares? Well, that I'm still trying to figure out, but the evidence is all here. If my hunches are correct, someone or something is using these entities as a tool to reach out to you. For what purpose, I'm not too sure. But since these two creatures don't seem to have any kind of relationship other than the fact that they are dreams, I can safely conclude that the monsters are not made up from your memories. They are real, or are as real as they would appear in their respective universes. Something out there is drawing them to you, and discovering that clue will ultimately be the next step in solving this mystery."

Robin raised his chin triumphantly, expecting some sort of praise for his magnificent deduction. Lucina noticed this and couldn't help but laugh, temporarily forgetting about her clone troubles.

"Hmm? What's so funny?" asked the tactician.

"Oh, nothing," replied Lucina with a small giggle. "Your rapid explanations… It reminds me of when we first joined the Smash Brothers."

Robin felt like saying something in retaliation, but only ended up smiling at the girl. That had been the first time he'd heard her laugh in the entire week.

"You really are your father's daughter," he said warmly.

Lucina's gaze fell away from him, her smile slowly diminishing. She suddenly remembered Chrom, the very man who she looked up to during her young life. What would he say if he were to see her now, trying to fight back against these inner demons of hers? Her eerie silence caused Robin to speak up again, steering the conversation back on track.

"Anyway I'm glad I was able to keep you entertained," he said, trying to sound cheery. "But jokes aside, I think we might be on to something here."

"I agree," she said, the thoughts of her father still lingering in the back of her mind. "It looks like I underestimated your research skills. You only had a day and already you were able to find this much information."

"Well take my words lightly," he replied seriously. "This may be the best lead we've had so far, but it's also hard to judge based on descriptions alone. And now you said there's a third entity we need to worry about; some kind of "hand" creature or however you described it."

"Yes, the… hand creature."

She remembered how helpless she was when the monster attacked, pinning her down to her own bed like some kind of prisoner. She had to rely on the help of her friends to save her, and even when she had her sword to defend herself, it didn't stop the copycat monster from utterly humiliating her. She could only imagine the look on her father's face if he were to see her failure now. Chrom wasn't one to be easily disappointed, but Lucina felt he deserved more than to have a daughter like this. Was she being too selfish? She felt like shedding a tear, if only for a split second. Her emotions were immediately interrupted by a warm grasp around her hand.

She looked up to see Robin staring into her eyes, a look of great concern flashing over him. She didn't know what to do, her instinct telling her to just sit still and wait for him to do something, but she accepted his warm gesture all the same. He had pushed the books aside, putting another hand underneath hers so that her fingers were encased in a blanket of warmth.

"You're doing your best," said Robin. "And that's all that counts. No matter what happens, Chrom will always be proud of you."

"I know," she replied quietly, averting her eyes from his gaze. "I just wish he was here right now."

Admittedly, a hug from dad would have been nice after enduring all those hellish dreams. After all, you were never too old to get a hug from dad.

"He's always with you," said the tactician comfortingly. "Just like he was during those dark times…"

That was when Lucina remembered the one missing factor that Robin had not taken into consideration during his deductions. How foolish she was to overlook something so significant too! She suddenly regained control of her emotions, but did not try to remove her hand from the mage's grasp.

"Robin," she said. "There's something I have to tell you."

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's about the-"

But she was interrupted by the sound of some rather loud knocking coming from the door. The two friends immediately broke free from each other, Robin placing his hands awkwardly on his lap and Lucina putting her hands together, the warmth of Robin's touch still emanating through her palm.

"Who is it?" called Lucina as casually as she could.

The knocking ceased, following by the bellowing voice of a being every Smasher knew all too well.

"It is Master Hand. Open the door, Lucina; there is something that you and I need to discuss."

* * *

><p>Captain Falcon plopped down on the couch of the postgame lobby, removing his trademark helmet and chucking it against the wall. He cursed loudly as he grabbed a water bottle and began chugging its contents. Meanwhile, the replay match between him and Meta Knight was playing on the television screen, video feeds of himself getting utterly destroyed by the Star Warrior looping over several sequences. Meta Knight soon entered the room as calm and collected as always. His iconic cape was draped around his body nonchalantly. Upon noticing the Star Warrior come in, Falcon had to dive for his helmet, placing it securely back on top of his head before stumbling back over to the couch.<p>

"Screw this shit," he spat, taking another long swig of the bottle. "I thought they nerfed you in the last game!"

Meta Knight rolled his eyes, though it was hard to tell from the mask.

"With every new tournament comes a new strategy," he replied in his deep intimidating voice. "You're tactics still seem unchanged from the previous tourney."

Falcon just continued drinking from the bottle, ignoring Meta Knight's comments. He had spent the past 20 minutes or so locked in combat with the swordsman. The F-Zero racer, who had always been known for his speed and agility (not to mention the "Knee of Justice"), was pretty much humiliated on camera by another fighter who was also just as fast. Meta Knight had developed a bit of a reputation for himself during the brawl tournament not only as being a skilled fighter, but also a wise swordsman bound by honor. Simply put, he would not engage in combat with any foe that was not ready for such engagements. This was part of the reason why he always requested Kirby be given a sword to suck up whenever the two sparred in the training room. That being said, the Star Warrior was still powerful, and many Smashers knew never to underestimate him for his size. Falcon, unfortunately, had gotten a bit too cocky on the stage after taking out two of Meta Knight's stocks, and ended up losing everything near the end game to some aerial maneuvers that he simply could not handle.

"Tactics my ass," said Falcon. "All you have to do is stay in the air and no one can touch you. Those things should be banned!"

Of course, Falcon was referring to the Star Warrior's wings, but Meta Knight seemed unfazed by his comment.

"If I cannot use my wings, then you should not be allowed to use any of your signature moves," replied Meta Knight. "That is the way of the game. We can either learn to adapt, or fall before its unforgiving rule set."

The F-Zero racer had no idea what the hell he was going on about. All he knew was that he lost, and despite it being fair and square, he hated to accept that.

"Whatever man," spat Falcon. "Don't think that just because you won this time it means that you're better than me."

"I never said that," said Meta Knight calmly. "Now are we going to review the match, or would you rather sit there and spew insults at me?"

"I'm all for the latter to be honest."

"Hmm. Well in that case, I shall take my leave. I have some important matters to attend to. Thank you for the game, Captain Falcon."

With that, the Star Warrior turned to leave, shuffling towards the exit like some sort of ghost. Seeing the Smasher's back only caused Falcon to stand up in annoyance.

"Hey, I'm not finished with you!" he shouted. "Come back here!"

Meta Knight continued walking, ignoring the F-Zero racer completely. This alone was quite the impressive feat as not a lot of Smashers had that kind of tolerance with Captain Falcon. After a few seconds, he ended up sitting down in defeat, glancing back up at the terrible replays on the screen. When he looked back at the door, he saw Meta Knight turn around and approach him again.

"Ah, back for more, eh?" snickered Falcon. "Want me to put you in your place again, eh?"

"Actually, I was meaning to ask you something," replied the Star Warrior nonchalantly. "Samus approached me the other day and asked if I knew anything about Lucina's 'bad dreams' she's been having."

Falcon's face seemed to turn white at that statement. He suddenly forgot about the awesome insult he was going to throw at the Star Warrior.

"How do you know about that?" he asked seriously.

"Samus mentioned it to me," he said, shrugging his shoulders and causing his armor to clank slightly. "So surely Lucina or someone else must have told her about it."

Falcon paused for a moment trying to backtrack to his conversation with Lucina. From what he understood, no one else in the mansion knew about the swordswoman's problem except him and Ike. Was it possible that Lucina had told Samus about it as well? The bounty huntress wasn't really one to be known for her social skills.

"Sure, let's go with that," said Falcon dismissively. "What did you want to ask me?"

"I'm not sure now," said Meta Knight as he rubbed the side of his head. "I think you're harsh comments have caused me to forget."

"Alright alright, I'm sorry!" replied Falcon, crossing his arms. "Now will you spit it out already?"

The Star Warrior glared at him, his golden eyes piercing the lens of the racer's helmet.

"My question is, provided I have an understanding of what is going on here, how much about these dreams have you been able to prove so far?" he asked.

Falcon seemed rather confused about the Star Warrior's remark. Just how much did Samus tell him when he spoke with her last time?

"We haven't proved anything," said Falcon straightforwardly. "All we know is that Lucina is being visited by monsters in her dreams, and these monsters attack her while she's asleep. Whatever injuries she receives while fighting the monster carry over when she wakes up, but we found out just the other night that she's been- Hey wait a second! Why am I tell YOU all this?"

Meta Knight closed his eyes, pondering for a few moments before staring back at the F-Zero racer.

"Because I might have the answer that you're looking for," he said calmly. "But that's enough; your explanation has verified my suspicions. I would be more than willing to share this information with you if you wish."

Falcon hesitated for a moment. He always knew Meta Knight to be a trusted ally, recalling times when the Star Warrior had saved his ass from certain peril in some cases. On the other hand, he was still loyal to Lucina, and wondered if discussing this delicate topic with a third party would be too risky. In the end, he decided to trust his better judgement.

"I'm all ears," said the F-Zero racer.

"Very well."

And so the Star Warrior told Falcon the tale about the ominous being known as Nightmare, a creature so evil and sinister that it had turned the once peaceful Dream Land into a desolate wasteland. After corrupting the Fountain of Dreams, Nightmare had overwhelmed Planet Popstar, sending its residents into an age of depression and turmoil. Meta Knight mentioned that Nightmare was able to use its power to rid the universe of all dreams, replacing them with nightmares that would torment innocent civilians in their sleep. Had it not been for Kirby and the Star Rod, well, things would have just gone from bad to worse. Even though Nightmare was defeated a long time ago, the happenings with Lucina's dreams seemed to be reminiscent of the entities evil reign. It was then that Falcon felt sorry for yelling at the swordsman, for it was possible that Meta Knight really _had_ given him the answer he had been searching for this whole time.

* * *

><p><strong>Long-ass Author's Note:<strong> Thank you to… pokemonrhoades, Aurawarrior13, Meowkerz, Dapper Dee VI, Pitta, Gamerfan64, MahNati, Hahli Nuva, and my anonymous reviewers for their reviews. I'm glad you are enjoying this story, as well to any silent readers who have been following thus far. To the guy/girl who writes about Charizard in his/her reviews, I promise to give the fire lizard more of a prominent role in this story. Last chapter wasn't really fair to you since you've been a dedicated reviewer from the beginning, so be on the look out! While, I'm mentioning characters, I want to make it clear that despite what I said before, there are some characters from SSB that will NOT be appearing in this story. These characters include female Robin, Alph, male Wii Fit Trainer, and the characters from Melee that were cut from Brawl (ie. Roy, Young Link, Pichu, and Mewtwo). Some characters that were cut from Brawl to Smash 4 (like Pokémon Trainer) may not make an appearance either. Also, for the sake of simplicity, Mario and Dr. Mario are the same person, but referred to differently depending on whether or not Mario is attending to patients.

Earlier on in this chapter I made a mention about an "incident" with Link and his Megaton Hammer. If you're interested in learning about what happened, you can check out my short-story, "Lucas' Doll" and find out. It'll be a good scary read for Halloween since this story won't be picking up in the scares until after next chapter at least. Hope you guys enjoyed it; this was my first time writing a real conversation sequence between Robin and Lucina so I hope I got them in character. If not, let me know and I'll do my best to fix it asap. Thanks guys, and I'll catch you next chapter!


	11. Meeting with Master Hand

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p>Chapter 11: Meeting with Master Hand<p>

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><p>"Open the door Lucina; there's something that you and I need to discuss."<p>

Upon hearing the voice of the monstrous floating hand outside of the room, Lucina couldn't help but glance at Robin, who in turn gave her the same worried look. Ever since the incident with the nightmares started, she had been trying her best to avoid contact with Master Hand for fear that he would impose some drastic changes onto her lifestyle. Anyone would normally expect these kinds of changes to be for the better, but Master Hand had a problem with making decisions based on the preferences of his Smashers. To him, everything was just business, and as such, he based his decisions on those judgements accordingly.

"I'll get it," said Robin hastily as he got up from the bed and made his way towards the door.

Numerous thoughts began to fill Lucina's head and she began wondering what the large disembodied hand planned to talk to her about. His tone of voice from the other side of the door did not make her feel any more comfortable to say the least. The young mage opened the door gently, revealing the floating white glove bobbing monotonously in the air.

"Good afternoon, Master Hand," greeted Robin politely. "How are you today?"

Although it was hard to tell, the larger being seemed rather unfazed by the friendly gesture. He did not expect to run into anyone else in the room besides Lucina.

"Hello, Robin," replied the hand casually. "I'm doing fine thank you. Do you mind if I step in?"

"By all means, sir," said the mage as he bowed his head slightly.

The two walked (well, Master Hand floated like he always does) back to Lucina's side of the room. Along the way, Robin gave the girl a look that meant he had no idea what Master Hand wanted to talk about. Lucina did her best to maintain her composure, but deep down inside she was feeling rather distressed.

"How are you doing my dear?" asked Master Hand as he approached the bedside.

Lucina was somewhat taken aback by his sudden casualness. Just outside the door he sounded like he was in a rush or in dire need to see her. Yet now, he was a calm as calm could be, which undoubtedly gave her all the more reason to feel anxious.

"I'm doing better," she replied plainly. "Dr. Mario is giving me one more night in the hospital wing before I'm released."

"Ah, good," he said, his constant bobbing still apparent. "I'm surprised at how fast you were beginning to recover considering the severity of your injuries from the other night."

"Yes, Zelda's magic was able to suppress most of the pain," she replied. "My wounds are still healing at a normal rate, but I can barely feel anything."

The hand nodded without saying anything, causing an awkward silence to fill the room for a few seconds. Lucina and Robin exchanged uneasy glances yet again, both of them anticipating Master Hand to say something about the "real" reason why he was here.

"With the formalities out of the way, Lucina," said the hand all of a sudden, "there's something I need to discuss with you." The large white glove slowly turned to Robin, who raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. "Privately."

The tactician closed his eyes and nodded.

"As you wish, sir," he replied, collecting his books and making his way out of the room. He gave one last worried look to Lucina before exiting and closing the door behind him.

Lucina looked up at the hand with uncertainty. A part of her wanted to say something in question, to get a better understanding of what this was all about. Another part of her wanted to apologize for causing such a commotion over the last few days. She knew Master Hand was the busiest individual in the mansion and rarely took the time to meet and talk with his Smashers in person. The only times she ever recalled seeing him was when she first joined the company, or during special occasions like the Christmas banquet or New Years. It was pretty much an unspoken rule that if Master Hand wanted to speak with a Smasher during business hours, it wasn't for a good reason.

"It has come to my attention that there have been a number of incidents occurring with you during the evening," said the hand straightforwardly. "I have received word from several Smashers that you are having quite the difficult time falling asleep."

And the award for understatement of the year goes to…

"I will do my best to explain everything," said Lucina as confidently as she could. In the back of her mind, she was wondering just how severe the rumors about her had become, but she discarded the thoughts for now. If there was anyone who should be informed on the truth about the nightmares, it was Master Hand.

And so, like she did with Captain Falcon, Ike, and Robin, Lucina told Master Hand about the incidents that began happening as of last Friday night. As she was explaining the details of the monsters in her dreams, she made sure not to mention any of the theories that Robin had stated to her previously, such as the Gengar or the False Character. She wanted Master Hand to make his own deductions based on the scenarios. And since he himself represented some sort of "godlike" figure to the Smashers, surely he would have the one and only solution to her supernatural predicaments. As she concluded her explanation, she noticed the hand angle himself towards the floor, simulating the portrayal of a human being who was deep in thought.

"Lucina," he said with a sigh, "I expected something better from an honest Smasher like you."

Lucina raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"I beg your pardon, sir?" she replied.

The hand looked back up at her, and like always she could not tell what he was thinking or what he about to say because of the fact that he had no face.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that the reason why you are in this hospital bed with stab wounds is because you were attacked by monsters in your dreams?" he asked.

This statement alone was exactly the reason why she was so hesitant to tell the other Smashers about her problem in the first place. Who in the right mind would believe such nonsensical drabble that's clearly something ripped right out of a Freddy Krueger movie?

"I can't explain it in any other way," she replied, somewhat disheartened. "The monsters have appeared in my sleep every night for the past three nights, and I fear that they are going to show up again tonight and probably for the nights following."

"Maybe you shouldn't watch so many scary movies."

She wasn't sure if she was to take that sentence as an insult, but she held her tongue regardless.

"The thing is, Lucina," continued Master Hand, "I have reason to believe that the culprit behind these attacks is not your 'boogey man', but someone that you can more easily relate to. Last night, the security camera planted in this room caught you on tape trying to hurt yourself."

Lucina was surprised to hear that Master Hand had known this. Did Falcon and Ike go against their word?

"That wasn't me though," she protested. "My body was being controlled by one of the monsters."

"That's a load of baloney," he scoffed. "Even if there was an evil presence on the mansion grounds, the barrier surrounding the property would have detected it while it was passing through. The barrier has never been broken once since it was deployed a few years ago."

"I understand that the evidence is not in my favor," she replied as strongly as she could. "But I don't know how else to explain it. I'm innocent, and if I can't find some way to deal with these midnight occurrences, then I fear that I may fall asleep one of these nights never to wake up again."

The hand pondered silently on this for a few moments before coming up with a response.

"I still stand by my points," he said. "These monsters you're seeing at night are likely a result of some traumatic ordeal that stupid movie put you through. The fact is that you were the one caught trying to strangle yourself last night, and I can bet you any money that it was also you who delivered the sword wounds onto yourself two nights ago. Honestly, if this is just your way of trying to get attention, then I'm afraid I will have to take matters into my own hand. I can't afford to have you forfeiting matches in the tournament because you can't control your urges."

Lucina was trying her best to remain calm, but even she could feel a small spark of irritation building up inside her.

"I can assure you I'm not trying to get anyone's attention," she replied seriously. "I just want my life to go back to the way it was before."

"Well then let's start making that change, shall we?"

The hand began to glow, causing a strange blue aura to surround Lucina's Falchion, which was sitting upright against the other bed. The sword began floating in the air and vibrating momentarily before disappearing completely into some kind of void.

"Wait, what are you doing?" she asked anxiously.

"We're going to have ourselves a little experiment," said the hand seriously. "Today, I'm going to take away your sword. If you can't seem to go another night without putting your hands around your neck, I'm going to put restraints on you. These restraints will progressively get more and more intense for each subsequent night you try to hurt yourself. If I have to put a straitjacket on you by the end of this week, then so help me, I will."

"I'm not crazy!" she protested. "And if you take away my sword, you're only going to put me in more danger!"

"More danger than what caused you to end up in this hospital bed?" he replied. "I don't think so. At least this way you can still partake in the tournament. I have ordered the Waddle Dees to remove the weapons rack that you keep in your room just to be on the safe side. If you need to grab a sword for the match, you can ask for permission from R.O.B. or one of the servants to retrieve one from the armory, but you _must_ return it afterwards immediately. Hopefully, this new system will help keep you in check by the time you're done recovering from whatever mental roadblock you keep butting up against. It's too bad we don't have a real psychiatrist in the roster…"

Lucina could only shake her head in dismay. She couldn't believe how insane Master Hand's decisions were, and better yet, how he himself did not see how crazy his temporary solution was. She was expecting something bad the moment the hand came to knock on her door, but she didn't expect something of this magnitude. Now, not only was she expected to just "get over" these bizarre nightmares, but she was also supposed to do it without her weapon. What was he going to impose next, turning her dorm room into a padded cell as if this mansion was some sort of insane asylum?

She ended up pleading to the hand for several minutes on the grounds that he was misjudging the situation entirely and that even if his assumptions were her real problem, they were definitely the wrong way to go about resolving it. The hand was persistent, however, and refused to budge from his decision, stating again and again that she was letting her imagination get the best of her. The poor girl found herself backed up into a corner with no way out other than to comply with the plan Master Hand had set forth for her. She really wished she had a friend by her side to help her stand up against her superior, like the trustworthy Robin, the loyal Ike, or even that airhead Captain Falcon.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, on the other side of the mansion…<p>

* * *

><p>Ike and Shulk were wandering down the halls, making their way to the cursed dorm room of what was probably the one and only Smasher they feared the most. After lunchtime, the mercenary and the Homs boy had joined forces in their attempts to interrogate the mansion's villains. The process itself was quite tedious to say the least. Nothing in their training as swordsman would have prepared them to face the wrath of the one everyone called "Ganondorf."<p>

Earlier in the day they had spotted King Dedede in the game room along with Waddle Doo, Fox, and Mario playing a game of foosball, while an upbeat remix of the Kirby's Dreamland theme was playing in the background. The king was reluctant to meet with them outside in the hall, but fortunately Yoshi had been passing by just in time to take his place in the game. After confirming that the coast was clear, Ike began questioning Dedede about anything he knew regarding dreams coming to life, just as Lucina's dreams had come to life in the nights prior. Despite the large penguin's reputation and Captain Falcon's negative descriptions of him, the good king was pretty compliant with the swordsmen and gave his best opinion on the matters. He didn't seem to know much about dreams coming to life, but he did make mention about a specific villain known as "Nightmare" who was notorious for making bad dreams a reality for its victims. Of course, it was impossible for Nightmare to be anywhere in the mansion as the barrier protecting the place prevented it from doing so. Not to mention, the Star Rod was securely tucked away at the Fountain of Dreams, which was one of the main sources of power Nightmare used to manifest itself in people's minds. Still, the information was quite useful to the swordsmen, and they made sure to give the king a "thanks" for his help, to which Dedede could only reply, "Yeah whatever, just let me get back to my damn game!"

Shulk and Ike continued on their rounds of the mansion, both of them talking about Lucina's predicament, as well as themselves for a bit because incidentally, neither of them knew all that much about each other. Ike learned about Shulk's home world known as the "Bionis," and of the evil mechanized forces that threatened it from the "Mechonis." He also learned a bit more about the Monado, the sacred sword that Shulk always carried around with him. Apparently, not only was the Monado a powerful weapon and time manipulator, but it also gave Shulk incredible fighting abilities. Shulk, likewise, learned quite a bit about Ike, like how he was the son of a powerful warrior named Greil, and that he helped to lead a band of mercenaries to take on a darker force in his own world. The two found themselves with a lot more in common than they expected and as such, developed a trusting bond of friendship, reminiscent of soldiers that both swordsmen used to fight alongside on the fields of battle.

Eventually, the two came upon Bowser, who was found in the garage trying to fix Bowser Jr.'s broken up Clown Car. The Koopa King was pretty tired, covered in oil and dust as expected from anyone who took the time to work on vehicles. But "these damn kids never take care of anything by themselves," or so he said anyways. He said he was also going to take a small break, to which Ike and Shulk took hold of the opportunity. Just like they had done to Dedede, they began questioning Bowser on anything he knew about nightmares being a reality. The Koopa King could only laugh at their questions, say how that sort of thing was impossible and that, "if dreams were real then I'd be sitting on a beach in Hawaii next to Peach and that blasted plumber would be eating pasta through a straw." In other words, Bowser had no idea what they were talking about, so it was safe to assume that he also did not have anything to do with Lucina's issues.

This series of events eventually led them up to the last villain, who would probably have some useful information for them. The two stood outside of Ganondorf's room, hesitantly standing there uneasily as they stared at the clean wood finish of the door.

"This is his room, right?" asked Shulk.

"I think so," replied Ike, though it was kind of obvious when the plaque next to the door clearly read, "Ganondorf." There were still some remnants of an adhesive when Sonic had childishly replaced the "dorf" with a sticker that read, "dork."

"We might as well knock then," said Shulk as he took a step forward, but was stopped when the mercenary put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hold on," he said. "Do you think this is a good idea? He could be sleeping in there."

Everyone remembers the last time someone had accidentally woken Ganondorf from his midafternoon nap. Let's just say that poor Pac-Man was seeing stars for the next few days or so.

"Well we can't stand out here all day," replied the Homs. "Besides, if he starts getting mad, I'm sure we can outrun him."

It was silly to think that anyone could run away from someone known as the "King of Evil."

"Okay fine," replied Ike before taking a deep breath. "Here it goes."

He approached the door and firmly knocked on it three times. They waited several seconds almost until a full minute had gone by, but there was no response from the other side. The two swordsmen glanced at each other before Ike waltzed back up to the door to knock again. Just as he was about to place a fist on the wood, however, a low voice emanating from inside of the room caught his attention.

"What business do you have here, heroes?" asked the muffled voice of the Gerudo King from the other side.

Shulk took a step forward, seeing as how Ike had already done enough by knocking.

"We've come to ask you a few questions," replied the Homs calmly. "If you would be so kind as to open the door?"

"No one is to disturb me during this hour," replied Ganondorf sternly. "I thought I made that clear to you all."

"We understand that," said Ike. "But what we have to ask you is very important."

"Does it have anything to do with me, the tournament, or the Triforce?"

"Well… uh, no, not really."

"Then I kindly ask that you please remove yourselves from my presence. Also, don't scuff the welcome mat."

Ike and Shulk glanced down at their feet to see a brown mat in front of the door that clearly read, "GET LOST."

"So now what?" asked Shulk as he looked back up at his companion.

Ike was hoping that it wouldn't have to come to him explaining Lucina's situation to Ganondorf, but if the Gerudo King was not going to let up, then it seemed that he really didn't have a choice. Dedede and Bowser were easier to talk to, but Ganondorf, well, he was going to take a bit of convincing.

"It's about Lucina," said Ike through the wooden frame of the door. "She thinks she's being attacked by evil spirits in her sleep. We thought that you might know something about it."

There was a slight pause before Ganondorf made any kind of reply.

"Who the hell is Lucina?" was all he said.

Admittedly, the King of Evil was not very good with remembering names, especially when it came to people he didn't particularly care about. Incidentally, this set of people made up about 98% of the entire roster, but no one dared to say anything about it to him anyways. He was familiar with the Smashers who he had worked with over the past decade or so, but he was still getting used to newcomers like Lucina and Shulk. First impressions didn't really matter with Ganondorf either since he more or less hated everyone equally.

"She's the one who's been in the hospital wing for the past few days now," replied Shulk. "You know, blue hair, has a sword, kind of looks like Marth."

"Oh THAT Lucina," said Ganondorf casually. "I remember her now. Isn't she like Marth's twin sister or something?"

"Not even close," muttered Ike. "But that's besides the point. Listen, we need to talk. Lucina's been having these reoccurring dreams lately where she's being attacked by monsters. The reason why she ended up in the hospital wing in the first place was because she woke up with several slash wounds on her body given to her by one of the creatures she faced. We think there might be some kind of evil presence behind it, so we were wondering if there was some way you'd be able to assist us."

A series of locks and tumblers could soon be heard clicking and clacking from the other side before the door finally opened, revealing a menacing Ganondorf in his usual dark attire. The large man stood tall, intimidating both of the swordsmen for a few seconds before they regained control of themselves.

"Now why, in the name of Nayru, would I want to help you?" asked Ganondorf unenthusiastically.

Ike and Shulk both looked at each other and nodded firmly.

"Because if you don't," replied Shulk, "she could die."

The dark lord put a hand to his chin, partly out of amusement and partly because he was trying to decide what he wanted to do. Truth be told, he was all for watching the struggle that mortals had to face, be it physically, mentally, or spiritually distressing. On the other hand, he thought that assisting these good heroes with their heroic deeds and such could help build him a better reputation around the mansion. Why, if Ganondorf was one of the people responsible for saving poor Lucina's life, the Smashers would have to give him respect. Even that bonehead Captain Falcon would have to think twice before getting in his way. Ganondorf may have been evil, but he was also a king. He couldn't help but think how great life would be if people started treating him as such. To be both feared and respected was a status that had only attained half of.

"Alright boys," said the Gerudo King with a sinister smile. "Let's talk."

He faded back into the darkness of his room, beckoning for the two swordsmen to follow him. They were a little uneasy at first, as no one had ever entered into Ganon's lair before. Still, they held their ground (as well as their breath) and went in, maintaining a high guard no matter what. As anyone would expect, Ganondorf's room was mostly dark, the only light sources in the room being various candles that were scattered all over the place, from the floor, to the shelves, to the tables. Various books were piled all over the place, as well as Hylian cloths, and magic mirrors, while specific items in the room such as a cauldron and his signature sword sat idly by on the side. It wasn't the cleanest room in the mansion, but it was home all the same. Ganondorf gestured for the two Smashers to sit down at a round table that had a crystal ball on it, though it seemed to be covered by a purple rag. Despite his general attitude towards everything, Ganondorf was quite the respectable host, and even offered some Gerudo crackers to the two Smashers. They declined, however, just to be on the safe side.

Discussions about the dreams soon followed thereafter. Ike and Shulk explained how Lucina had been having reoccurring nightmares about monster trying to kill her in her sleep. They did their best to describe the creatures just as she had before, but none of them seemed interesting to the King of Evil until they got to the third monster. Oddly enough, this monster had less of a background than the other two, but there were a few key details that Ganon was able to pick up on that grabbed his attention. Firstly, the creature had somehow descended onto Lucina from her ceiling, though she couldn't get a good view of it due to the large hand that had found its way around her neck. And that was another thing: The hand. This was the only real detail Ike could recall Lucina ever talking about regarding the third night. Ganondorf made it apparent that perhaps the reason why she couldn't see the creature except for its hand was because the creature's entire body was made up of just the hand, similar to how Master Hand was all that his name implied. At this of course, Shulk and Ike were kind of confused, for neither of them had ever seen a creature like that before except Master Hand and his brother, Crazy Hand. It was at that moment when Ganondorf reached for a book under the table, flipping through to the pages until he found what he was looking for. He began analyzing the page he was on, putting a hand to his chin as he skimmed over the words while Shulk and Ike just sat in silence. After a few minutes, the Gerudo pulled the rag off of the crystal ball, which began shining brightly in the room.

"Did Lucina's monster look like this?" he asked.

Upon closer inspection of the crystal ball, the Smashers noticed that in the center of it was the image of a disembodied black hand. The hand had claws for nails, and appeared to be crawling through the suspended atmosphere like some kind of spider.

"What is it?" asked Shulk.

"A minion that only I can control in the land of Hyrule," replied Ganondorf calmly. "Its purpose is to act as a guard, seeking out trespassers on my land and removing them from the premises. They are cold-blooded hunters that will never eat or sleep. They are called Wallmasters."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Just want to say a few quick words before I end this chapter.

Firstly, I had originally much more written for this chapter, like a scene with Falcon and Robin, but I stopped when I realized how long this was getting. The cut section will be pushed to the next chapter, which is a bummer because I wanted the next chapter to be the start of the fourth encounter. Looks like we're going to have to wait for one more update before the nightmares return.

Secondly, if there's anyone in the crowd who suffers or has suffered from some kind of mental disorder or has gone through some kind of mentally traumatizing event in their life, I hope that Master Hand's comments did not offend you. I realized after writing this that I might be tugging on some people's emotions, and even I myself know someone who has suffered through something similar in their life. So again, if you took offense to this, I am sorry; I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings or make them feel bad in any way. I'm just trying to write a story.

Finally, with November now upon us, unfortunately my updates for this story may not be as consistent as they were before. I will try to get the usual once-a-week updates out to you guys, but if you don't see anything from me for like two weeks after this, do not fret; I will not abandon this story. For more information on this, please check my profile page. Have a happy and safe Halloween everyone!


	12. Friends

It Came from Lucina's Head

* * *

><p>Chapter 12: Friends<p>

* * *

><p>Captain Falcon made his way hastily back towards the hospital wing. He didn't expect to be talking with Meta Knight for more than ten minutes, but the Star Warrior proved to be more useful to him than he initially thought. Along the way, he didn't stop to talk to anyone he passed, but just kept on trekking through the halls like a man with a mission. He wanted to be the first to let Lucina know that he had the first clue in solving the mystery. He just continued mumbling to himself, "Nightmare, Nightmare, Nightmare," as if not saying the name would cause him to forget. He was very thankful for the information that Meta Knight had supplied him with, and the Star Warrior made it clear that he would try to stay out of his business unless things got out of hand. This of course made Falcon all the more eager to return to Lucina as fast as he could without looking suspicious. By now he had forgotten all about the original plan with Ike.<p>

As he entered the hallway of the hospital wing, he noticed Robin up against the side of Lucina's door with his ear against it. Falcon soon found himself going from a fast walk to a speedy run as he approached the tactician.

"Hey!" he shouted. "What do you think you're doing!?"

"Shh!" Robin replied, glaring at the racer as he tried to focus on Master Hand's conversation.

Falcon came up to the young mage with hands on his hips and a look of disappointment on his face, though on the inside he was snickering.

"Can't go a day without wanting a piece of her huh?" said the F-Zero racer obnoxiously. "You should learn to control those animal instincts."

"Master Hand is in there," replied Robin, ignoring the racer's comment. "I can't hear what they're talking about though."

"What!" said Falcon quietly as he leaned down and put his head up against the door as well.

The two Smashers ended up standing there for several minutes staring at each other and listening intently for what was going on in Lucina's hospital room. Master Hand's voice could be heard, but it was muffled beyond belief due to how far into the room they were. Lucina's voice could barely be heard at all, but Falcon could tell that the conversation they were having was not a very pleasant one.

"How long have you been standing here?" asked Falcon curiously, his helmeted ear still on the door.

"Roughly five minutes or so," replied Robin casually. "We were talking in her room earlier but Master Hand interrupted us."

"_Damn right you were interrupted you little slime ball_," thought Falcon internally, but retained a blank expression on his face.

"I'm not sure what he wanted to talk about," continued the mage, "but from the sound of it, it can't be good."

"You're telling me," responded Falcon. "Master Hand never leaves his office unless it's really important."

"It would be smart for us to keep our heads low then," said Robin as he glanced up, trying to make out a few more words. "The last thing we need is for him to be on our tails over something like this."

"He doesn't scare me," replied Falcon as he stood tall and crossed his arms. "And speak for yourself; I don't have a tail."

Robin gave him a queer look before returning to his eavesdropping. Falcon just ended up leaning against the wall, as he could barely hear anything coming from the room anyways. Plus, he didn't want Robin to think he was trying to assist him in any sort of way.

The two Smashers found themselves standing in the hall and listening intently for quite some time. Half the time, Falcon thought he was picking up some key words in the conversation, but putting it all together didn't really make any sense. He constantly glanced at Robin who had his eyes closed as he focused on what was transpiring in Lucina's room. If another Smasher were to walk by, the two would have looked oddly suspicious. And if R.O.B. was watching them, hopefully he wouldn't say anything to Master Hand. It's not like they were disturbing anyone anyway. They both just really cared about Lucina. As for who cared about her the most, well, that was something Falcon was willing to debate over.

"So are you and Lucina old friends or something?" asked the F-Zero racer all of a sudden.

The question kind of took Robin off guard. Admittedly, Falcon had no idea who Robin was or what his life was like before joining the Smash Bros. It was a regular problem he encountered when it came to the newcomers. He of course wanted to get to know Lucina better the moment he set his eyes on her (but that was for a different reason altogether), whereas the other newcomers took a bit more time for him to get used to. The one thing he did notice when he first met Robin, however, was how unusually close the mage and the swordswoman were upon becoming permanent residents of the mansion. Sure, it was natural for members of the same universe to hang out consistently with each other (at least for the first few months while everything was being settled) but Lucina in particular wasn't close to most of Smashers. She was kind and well-liked, but her presence mostly went unnoticed during social events.

"Old friends?" replied Robin. "I suppose you could say that."

Lucina's small circle of friends typically revolved around the rest of the Fire Emblem crew. There was Ike, who, though a bit serious and gullible at times, was initially very helpful in getting her settled with the mansion customs like the weekly game nights or the holiday gatherings. Then there was Marth, a Smasher who recently rose in popularity due to the idol image he represented towards the girl. He was as kind and trusting as Lucina was, and just about as elegant with a blade as well. Finally, there was Robin, a mysterious young man who usually kept to himself, but was willing to open up to people who he shared similar interests with. Any other friends Lucina had such as Shulk kind of developed over time due to either constant meet ups in team battles or just reoccurring friendly conversation.

In contrast, Falcon was kind of the man in the middle. He wasn't particularly close to Lucina in any way, but was more of an acquaintance of sorts. He admired her for her looks and general attitude, as it was nice to have a girl around the mansion who "wasn't a cold-hearted beast like a certain bounty hunter." Of course, this was just Falcon's speculation. In truth, the original point of his scheduled "movie nights" was to help him get to know Lucina better. All of the Smashers knew Captain Falcon to be quite the ladies' man, but his attempts at picking up chicks usually ended up in flops, mainly because most of the girls in the mansion were princesses (there was even a goddess now; good luck with that one). Ever since Lucina became a victim to these apparent nightmares, however, Falcon could feel himself wanting to stay by her side more than ever before. Because truthfully, it saddened him to see her like this. Surely a girl as polite and beautiful as her deserved more than what that asshole (err, hand) of a boss was telling her.

"So that's it?" asked Falcon, trying not to sound like he cared too much. "There's nothing between you two?"

"What do you mean?" replied Robin, looking up at him curiously.

"You're both just friends and nothing more. Or am I missing something here?"

"Um… We're friends, yeah." The young mage paused momentarily. "Why are you asking me this all of a sudden?"

"Oh, you know," said Falcon, followed by an overly dramatic laugh while he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "No reason, just curious!"

He could feel his inner conscious Falcon Punching his mind for giving such a stupid response. Another side of him, however, was quite glad to hear that Robin and Lucina were just "friends."

"Lucina and I have fought alongside each other many a time in the past," said Robin, regaining his composure. "We synchronize quite well together on the battlefield, especially since she's more of a melee fighter while I prefer to attack from a range."

It seemed that Robin was trying to steer the conversation away from something more personal, but the fact that he mentioned himself and Lucina working well together still didn't sit easily with Falcon.

"I bet you do," replied the racer through grinded teeth.

"We usually hang out during the off hours," continued Robin casually. "Most of the time it's just her, Shulk and I, but Marth sometimes joins us on occasion."

This was all news to Falcon; he never did bother to investigate what Lucina did during her free time.

"What do you guys do?" asked the racer curiously.

"Usually just talk about stuff," replied the tactician. "You know, the tournament, life here in the mansion, other Smashers, whatever really."

"Oh great," muttered Falcon with a frown. "You're all part of a little gossip circle."

"It's not as bad as you think. Why, she's even said a few things about you."

Now Falcon was starting to get _really_ interested in where this was going.

"What does she say?" he asked, trying not to sound concerned at all (where in actuality it was the complete opposite).

"She thinks you're a lot of fun to be around," replied Robin with a smile. "You're the 'life of the party', so to speak."

Falcon couldn't help but grin stupidly as he imagined Lucina telling him this herself. He could picture himself standing there at the edge of a tall cliff overlooking a shining endless sea, his signature scarf majestically blowing in the wind and his abnormally huge muscles shimmering brightly under the rays of the setting sun. His overly manly and overly hairy chest puffed out from the tattered confinements of his tight white shirt, while his finely-toned legs stood firmly planted in the luscious grass. And who should be standing by his side but the beautiful Lady Lucina, who had her long blue hair down loose and fluttering elegantly in the wind. She was dressed in a clean white dress, which showed off her robust figure quite nicely, and she had her feminine arms wrapped around Falcon, her delicate fingers caressing his… chest. As the doves flew over the horizon, cooing ever so melodically as birds do, she leaned up and whispered seductively into his ear, "You're the life of the party," (however that works) followed by a small peck on the cheek and a cute giggle. Falcon just stood there with his chin held high, his arm around her perfectly curvy waist, not even caring to notice that Robin was at the bottom of the cliff, broken and beaten by the rolling waves and vast amount of sharp rocks and carnivorous fish, all the while calling the racer's name to come and rescue him.

"Falcon," said Robin, crouched on the ground outside of Lucina's hospital room. "Falcon. Falcon!"

Captain Falcon suddenly jumped at attention, having been shaken free from his wonderful fantasy. He realized that the mage had been trying to talk to him this whole time.

"Huh, wha-?" he replied. "Oh whoops. Must've been daydreaming, eheh."

"Um, right. Anyway, if you're just going to stand there and not listen, would you mind doing me a favor and return these books to the library?"

Robin gestured to the two large books on the floor behind him. Of course, these were the same books that he had presented to Lucina just earlier in order to explain his findings.

"Oh, that reminds me," said the F-Zero racer. "Were you able to find anything in the library?"

Robin nodded his head.

"As a matter of fact, I did," said the mage confidently, though he didn't sound nearly as enthusiastic as he did when he had told Lucina about it. "I have a theory that explains the happenings behind the first two monsters Lucina encountered in her dreams. I'm currently in the middle of trying to determine a motive."

Falcon shrugged his shoulders, pretending that he wasn't nearly as impressed as he really was with Robin's apparent progress.

"Oh, well that's good," he said casually. "Ugh, I mean, what a coincidence! I also have a theory as to what might be causing these nightmares!"

Robin raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"Oh really?" he asked, somewhat doubtful about the whole thing. "Forgive my skepticism, but I find it odd how you managed to find the time to look in to such affairs when you spent your whole night in the security room."

"Just call me 'Superman'." Falcon raised his chin up high, though Robin still wasn't buying it. Regardless, the tactician decided to humor the man in hopes that his reasoning could get him a new lead on the whole mystery.

"Well, let's hear it then," said Robin as he stood up, putting his arms on his hips and directing his full attention at the racer.

"Huh?" replied Falcon with a blank look.

"Your theory. You said you had a theory."

"Uhh," stuttered Falcon as he tried to come up with a response. Truth be told, he wasn't really sure how he was supposed to explain it. All he knew was that Nightmare was the bad guy they were after, but how all this was supposed to tie into Lucina's misfortune he wasn't quite sure. After a few seconds of standing there awkwardly and debating whether or not he should just make a break for it, the racer ended up saying, "Um, you tell me yours first!"

"Very well," replied Robin nonchalantly as he picked up one of the books on the ground. He began to tell Captain Falcon everything he had told Lucina prior, from the ghostly Pokémon Gengar to the creepy monsters known as False Characters. There really wasn't much to explain, but Robin found himself mentioning a few things over and over again due to Falcon's inability to pay attention. Still, the racer did his best to listen closely, and he even found himself nodding his head a few times as he finally began piecing the puzzle together. Indeed, Robin's hypothesis was quite the solid contender.

"Makes sense," commented Falcon at the end of the tactician's explanation. "But Gengar, really? Wouldn't a more 'nightmarish' Pokémon have something to do with it? Like, I don't know… Darkrai?"

"My deductions are based on Lucina's descriptions and Lucina's descriptions alone," said Robin. "But it's completely possible that Darkrai could in fact be the one orchestrating this entire event."

"Well yeah, I mean it's possible for _anyone_ to be behind these nightmares, isn't it?"

"So your theory," replied Robin, somewhat annoyed by that last statement. "Would you care to share it with me?"

Falcon could feel the words dancing on the edge of his tongue, but for some reason he just couldn't bring himself to say anything. He ended up just standing there and stuttering for a few seconds before Lucina's door opened, the great being known as Master Hand making his exit.

"You may now go and see Lucina if you wish," said the hand casually. "I have work to attend to."

Falcon raised his hand to say something in objection, but Robin jumped ahead of him.

"Would it be pointless for us to ask what you two talked about?" asked the mage seriously.

"I will not disclose any part of the discussion that took place in that room," said Master Hand as he began floating down the hall and around the corner. "However, Lucina is under no obligation to keep secrets from you."

Falcon and Robin exchanged glances with each other before darting into the room. They saw Lucina sitting upright in her bed and staring at her sheets, a very troubled look on her face.

"Lucina, is everything okay?" asked Robin with concern as he flew to her bedside. Falcon could feel his blood boiling at the sudden action, but he let it slide since the swordswoman was so distressed.

"It's… gotten worse," she replied as she continued staring, her eyes focused on nothingness. Falcon stood in front of her and began waving a hand to try and get a reaction, but she remained motionless. "Master Hand has taken away my sword. He… He thinks that I've been doing this to myself." She glanced down her shirt, acknowledging the various bandages wrapped around her body. "He's proposed a new plan to help get me through this."

"By taking your sword?" said Falcon. "That's got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard! How can he expect you to defend yourself now?"

"He doesn't expect anything from me," she said depressingly. "He just wants this to stop."

"We want it to stop too, Lucina," said Robin seriously. "But I'm afraid I have to agree with Falcon on this. When you had Falchion you at least stood a fighting chance, but he's taken away the only crutch you had to stand on. Unless we can determine what's causing these nightmares, you're going to keep having them, and going into a battle unarmed is suicide."

"I don't know what to do now. Maybe I should just… I should just leave."

Falcon's eyes went wide as she said those last words.

"What!? Leave!? What do you mean leave!?" he said.

"I mean leave forever," she replied seriously. "I could resign from the Super Smash Bros… and return to Ylisse. That way all of you wouldn't have to bear my burdens."

"That's not the answer, Lucina," said Robin sternly. "And you know it isn't."

She glanced at the mage, a terrible look of uncertainty filling her eyes.

"I…"

"You're not like this," continued Robin. "You're a strong and brave fighter who has slain many a foe in the past. Remember who you are, and remember where you come from. If Chrom were to walk in through that door, do you think he would want to see his daughter sitting here and sobbing because some giant disembodied hand took her sword away?"

Truth be told, if Chrom _were _to walk in and see Lucina in such a depressed state, he'd more than likely fly to her side and comfort her in the unexplainable way that only fathers can.

"Robin…" she said.

"The Lucina I know isn't one to admit defeat so easily," continued Robin with a nod. "The Lucina I know is a natural born fighter, and would sooner risk her life saving the ones she cares about than to just surrender to the forces of darkness." The mage glanced at Falcon, gesturing for him to help him out here. Falcon was more dumbstruck at how effective Robin was at handling Lucina's emotional side, but the racer got the message and jumped in just in time.

"He's right," said the F-Zero racer calmly. "It isn't like you to just throw in the towel. Like, remember that time you and I were in a team battle against Donkey Kong and Bowser? We were losing so hard during the match, but we kept fighting together and we pushed ourselves as far as we could go! And we ended up winning the sudden death, right when we thought it was all going to be over!"

Lucina did remember that match quite clearly as it was one of the closest games she had ever participated in. Just as Falcon said, they were losing for the first few minutes, being behind by a whole two stocks. Fortunately, they never gave up, and continued laying on the pressure, delivering a perfectly timed Falcon Punch Shield Breaker combo into both foes. Falcon's reaction after that match was priceless, and she vividly remembered the F-Zero racer picking her up and spinning her around in celebration. She couldn't help but give a small smile as she recalled the fond memories.

"We're with you to the very end," said Robin, putting a hand on top of hers, "so long as you'll give us that chance."

She stared into Robin's eyes, and then her gaze turned toward Falcon, who stood tall and gave her a confident thumbs-up with a wink. That was when she realized that she wasn't alone in all of this. She had her friends, and they were all doing their best to make sure she could pull through. She felt a sudden warm sensation building up inside her, causing a most sincere smile to appear on her face.

"You're right," she said. "Forgive me for acting so reckless. Master Hand's words kind of left me frazzled."

"Take my advice," replied Falcon. "Don't listen to Master Hand. He may run a business, but the guy's got zero interpersonal skills. You can't really blame him though. I mean, if I were a giant disembodied hand, I'd be pretty pissed about my life too."

Lucina couldn't help but giggle at the racer's comment, causing Falcon to chuckle as well. Robin just smiled, as he was more than content with hearing Lucina's laugh again. A sudden knock at the open door caused all of the Smashers to glance in the direction. Ike and Shulk were standing at the room's entrance with surprised looks on their faces.

"Are we interrupting anything?" asked Shulk.

"Not at all," replied Lucina, though she was wondering why Ike and Shulk were together. "Please, come in."

The two swordsmen joined the other Smashers in the room around Lucina's bed. It was actually quite a funny sight. If another Smasher were to walk by and peer in, they'd more than likely wonder what they heck was going on in here.

"Hey Ike!" greeted Captain Falcon. "How was lunch?"

"It was fine," replied the swordsman casually. "It would have been nice if you didn't run off on me like that."

"Oops, sorry. Yeah, I kind of forgot to tell you that-"

"I know. Don't worry because Shulk here was kind enough to volunteer some of his time today."

"Hello!" said the Homs boy cheerfully.

"So now he knows about all of this," muttered Lucina. "Forgive me Shulk for hiding all of this from you. I did not mean it in a bad way."

"Don't worry about it," replied Shulk. "I understand completely. What matters now is that you're here and that we can tell you what we found out about the villains."

"This should be interesting…" said Robin to the side.

The two Smashers explained to the others that basically, Bowser, King Dedede, and Ganondorf didn't have anything to do with the nightmarish happenings. They were more or less clueless as to why anyone's dream would come to life and try to kill them. Oddly enough, Ganondorf proved to be the most useful out of all of them as he had was able to give a good explanation on the third creature from Lucina's dream. Apparently, the "hand" monster that had tried to strangle Lucina in the previous night was none other than a Wallmaster, a creature commonly found guarding dungeons in the Hyrulian realm. It was not trained to attack, but to defend, hunting down unwanted travellers and carrying them to the exits of the dungeons. Why a Wallmaster would appear in Lucina's dream and start choking her to death they still weren't sure about. Still, the explanation was quite well received, as it did not conflict with Robin's own theory, so for the time being they decided to take the King of Evil's words as fact.

Immediately thereafter, Lucina apologized to Falcon and Ike for the harsh attitude she gave them when she last spoke with them, but the two Smashers were fine with it. She reassured them that at the time, she was tired, and just wanted to catch up on the much-needed sleep that she had previously missed. Lucina then told the Smashers about her meeting with Master Hand and how he had taken her only weapon away from her. She stated that his reasoning behind the seemingly reckless action had to do with her own safety; however, she was convinced that not having her sword with her was only making the situation more dangerous than it was before. Now, she found herself in a bit of a hard place, unsure of how to proceed into the next evening. Given the current circumstances, the Smashers would not be able to get any further answers until the next day, meaning that Lucina was going to have to go at least one more night of hell. It was a puzzling dilemma, of course, until Robin was able to come up with a temporary "bandage."

"Perhaps one of us should stay here for the night with you in case something goes wrong?" proposed the mage.

Lucina was hesitant to reply, as whether or not she was comfortable with that plan depended on who was staying.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" she asked.

"It's the best one we've got so far," said Robin reassuringly. "If something does go wrong in the night, at least someone will be here to wake you up from your sleep. Think of it as a kind of failsafe in case another monster decides to show up."

Ike nodded his head in agreement.

"It sounds like a good plan," he said. "I'm all for it if you guys are."

"Are there any objections?"

Eyes glanced from Ike, to Lucina, to Shulk, and then finally to Captain Falcon. No one had said anything, but Falcon really wanted to say something along the lines of, "Only if I get to be the one to stay here!"

"Well, if you're sure this is the right way," commented Lucina, "then I suppose we'll have to go with it."

"The question is," said Ike, "who gets to stay behind? There's only one other bed in here after all."

Falcon immediately raised his hand, a strong look of determination on his face.

"I'm willing to risk my life for her!" he cried. "Ugh, I mean, I'll do it. I've been meaning to give these dream-freaks a piece of my mind."

"With all due respect, Falcon," replied Robin, "I think it would be best if the candidate was either Shulk or I. Both you and Ike lost a lot of sleep last night because of the night watch."

"That's true," said Ike, crossing his arms. "We still need to catch up on our rest. If Master Hand finds out we've been faltering in matches because of sleep loss, he'll have our heads."

"But… But… But…" stuttered the racer. He really couldn't think of a good response to trump Robin's point.

"_Dammit!_" he thought. "_I knew that little bastard was after her this whole time!_"

"So who's it going to be then?" asked Shulk.

"We'll let Lucina decide," replied Robin calmly.

Lucina suddenly felt uneasy with such a decision being thrown at her. She didn't want the Smasher who she didn't pick to think wrongly of her, so she quickly came up with a response that made her decision justifiable, even by Falcon's standards.

"I would be fine if Robin stayed," she said casually. "We've slept together before anyways." She closed her eyes and nodded before realizing how that last sentence came out. "Um, not like that!" Her face started to get a little red with embarrassment and she began frantically waving her hands. "I meant we've spent nights together alongside our allied forces when we travelled Ylisse."

Shulk gave a small smirk while Ike just nodded, understanding what she originally meant to say. Falcon frowned, glancing at Robin whose cheeks were also turning a bit red.

"Ugh, well that settles it then," said the mage, quickly regaining his composure. "I'll spend the night with Lucina… Um, I mean I'll stay here and keep watch over her while she… uh…"

"There's really no better way to word that is there?" chuckled Shulk.

"Okay, well if you're staying here tonight, you better not try anything funny!" said Falcon, giving the mage a glare. "And so help me if anything bad happens to her, you're gonna have to answer to me! You got that?"

Robin put his hands up in defense.

"Easy there, Falcon," he replied. "And don't worry; I understand."

"I mean it! Hey, are you even listening to me?"

"Calm down you two," interjected Ike. "This isn't worth killing each other over."

The mage and the racer continued bickering while Lucina just stared at them with a confused look on her face. Ike just put a hand to his head in disappointment while Shulk got a good laugh out of the whole scene. The Homs boy was soon interrupted, however, when the Monado struck him with a vision. The scene played through his head in a matter of seconds, but it was enough time for him to analyze the scenario. He could see the room they were standing in, only it was nighttime, and Lucina and Robin were both asleep in their respective beds. A third unidentifiable person soon entered the room and crept silently across the floor. In the figure's hand was a knife, though it was hard to tell which hand the intruder was holding it in. The knife was raised high and plunged deeply into the chest of one of the Smashers lying in the beds, a splash of blood clouding Shulk's view of the attack. He couldn't tell if it was Lucina or Robin who had been so brutally stabbed to death.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thank you to… pokemonrhoades, Dapper Dee VI, Pitta, Gamerfan64, Varanus K, CavalierShark, Aurawarrior13, Hahli Nuva, Lizardon, MahNati, and crazycarl364 for reviewing, as well as to any other readers who have made it this far. I found it kind of funny how all of my reviewers shared a very similar opinion towards Master Hand. That "jerk" personality was kind of what I was aiming for when I brought him into this story, so I'm glad to see that it worked. The more chapters this story is getting, the harder it is for me to write, mainly because I have to keep track of what every character knows at every point in the story. That's kind of the reason why I brought all five of them together at the end there, just to make sure they were all on the same page. As a side note, chapters 3, 4, and 8 have been updated with less ambiguous titles (for example, chapter 4 has been renamed from "Doubts" to "Samus' Advice"). In other news, I think this chapter is now the longest one, hitting almost 5000 words exact. Also, I had _way_ too much fun writing that paragraph about Captain Falcon's fantasy. Lastly, I kind of pushed the RobinxLucina pairing a bit this chapter, but I'm leaving the door open for Falcina since this story could honestly go either way. Is there a particular pairing you support? Anyways be prepared, because next chapter, the fourth encounter will be upon us… (dun dun DUN)!


	13. The Fourth Encounter

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Last chapter I received a buttload of reviews (at least twice as many as normal) for some reason, so I'm going to take this opportunity to get my thanks out of the way. Thank you to Aurawarrior13, Namgum, CavalierShark, mattawrus, Gamerfan64, F-ZeroSamus, Pitta, pokemonrhoades, Varanus K, crazycarl364, Dapper Dee VI, MahNati, Hahli Nuva, Flare Hedgehog, and lucina-lover for reviewing. For my anonymous reviewers, I give my thanks to Natsu d uzumaki, Catbug, Lizardon, and That One Guest. To the anonymous reviewers who did not leave a distinguishable name (Guest), I thank you for reviewing just as well.

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><p>Chapter 13: The Fourth Encounter<p>

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><p>By the time Lucina closed her eyes, Robin had already fallen asleep. She had been lying in her bed for almost two hours, her mind a constant rush of thoughts as she wondered what ungodly horror would decide to pay her a visit tonight. For now, in the darkness of her hospital room, it was safe to assume the worst.<p>

When Shulk told her about his sick and twisted vision, she didn't want to believe it. She knew she had to, however, due to his uncanny ability to accurately foresee the future. Captain Falcon nearly blew a fuse when he heard what the Homs boy had to say and was fully willing to interrogate every resident of the mansion (including the Waddle Dees) in order to find out who this potential "murderer" could be. It was highly recommended by Shulk that they revise their current plan of having Robin stay in Lucina's room in favor of something more secure, such as moving her to a room that had no windows, or having multiple Smashers guard her while she slept.

Robin of course dismissed such proposals and decided to come up with his own way of remedying the situation. The mage had given Lucina a bell to string around her wrist during the night. Should something unexpected come up, or should she find herself being attacked by one of those monsters just like before, all she had to do was ring the bell, to which Robin would immediately wake up and promptly break her free from her nightmare. There was no doubt in the Smashers' minds that as long as Lucina was awake, the creatures in her dreams could not attack her. Therefore, the final solution became more of a backup "alarm clock" of sorts, as well as providing the natural safety net of someone else being in the room with her.

Lucina glanced over at the Smasher in the other bed before staring at the small bell on her left wrist. The bell itself was quite the peculiar little thing, resembling the type of jingle bells one would see and hear around Christmas time. Even more interesting was the fact that the bell would not make a sound if she moved her arm around naturally, but the moment she tried shaking her hand about, the chiming was so loud, it could probably be heard from the next room over. This was so demonstrated by Robin when he gave her the bell before bed time. "If you're in trouble, just ring the bell and I'll wake you up," he had said. Indeed, his words were very comforting, but that still didn't change the fact that whether she liked it or not, someone or something was going to show itself tonight.

The sword-less swordswoman began tossing and turning just like she had done in the previous night, occasionally looking over at Robin who seemed to be in a deep sleep. She noticed that the tactician had left his enchanted Levin Sword lying idly on the nightstand between their beds. He had said something to her earlier about borrowing it if she absolutely needed to defend herself from an intruder. He strongly stated, however, that she was only to use it as a last resort, or basically if the "bell plan" were to fail for some reason. Lucina wasn't very well-versed in magic, but at the end of the day, she knew that a sword was still just a sword. Being without a weapon of her own really did make her feel crippled, so she was thankful to have a dependable friend like Robin to rely on.

Oddly enough, Captain Falcon was the only one who was so strongly against Robin sleeping in Lucina's room. Truth be told, the girl wasn't quite sure of the reason, but she figured that it had to do with F-Zero racer's given chemistry with Robin. She knew they weren't particularly close (or even _good_ friends for that matter) but something about the way they talked to each other just didn't sit well with her. She'd always known Falcon to be the outgoing type who got along with any Smasher who didn't categorize him as one of the "annoying ones." On the other hand, he could also be a jerk sometimes, but his interactions with Ike said otherwise. Those two were a bit of an odd case as well because despite their apparent differences, Ike and Falcon actually got along fairly well with each other. She knew for a fact that they were nowhere near to being close friends either. As the thoughts occurred to her, Lucina wondered if there was any Smasher in the mansion who would call him or herself a best friend of Captain Falcon. Perhaps this was the reason why the racer had gone out of his way to ask her to watch a movie with him? For all she knew, the confident and iconic Captain Douglas J. Falcon could very well have been the loneliest resident of Smash Mansion…

Ultimately, all these strings of thoughts were the only thing preventing her from falling asleep. She found herself occasionally glancing at the security camera in the high corner of the room, wondering if R.O.B. was watching them again. The fact that there was someone behind the camera was more or less the saving grace as to why Robin was so confident in his plan. If a mysterious "murderer" were to show himself, the camera would undoubtedly catch the attacker in the act, to which R.O.B. would activate the mansion's alarm systems, alerting every resident of the intruder's presence. The robot had made sure to test the security system yet again after it seemingly malfunctioned during Lucina's struggle with the Wallmaster.

As the clock struck 2 in the morning, Lucina was beginning to wonder when these freaky nightmares were going to occur. She had her eyes closed and kept falling in and out of sleep, but the intrusive thoughts kept on persisting. A part of her just wanted to get it over with since she definitely knew it was coming. But hey, if tonight ended up being the first night in three days where she got a perfect night of sleep, then that would be totally fine with her.

"_Try not to think about it_," she thought. "_Just go to sleep._"

And eventually, she really did fall asleep, if only for a split second. For as soon as she was about doze off, an eerie humming sound coming from the door caused her to bolt upright in her bed. She glanced towards the source, noticing that the door was open, and that there was a strange pulsating green light coming from somewhere down the hall and making its way towards the room.

"_That's strange. I thought Robin shut the door before he went to sleep?_"

She glanced at the Smasher in the other bed only to realize in horror that Robin was no longer there. The bed was perfectly made, as if not a single soul had slept in it for quite some time. And naturally, this only meant one thing...

"_I really am in the dream world now_," she thought. "_But it's okay. All I have to do is ring the bell._"

But of course, when she went to shake her arm, there was no chiming sound coming from the bell. As a matter of fact, the bell wasn't even attached to her wrist anymore. All that remained was the loose string Robin had used to tie it to her. Lucina began frantically searching the area in and around her bed for the item, all the while dreading the thought of whatever nightmarish creature could possibly be making its way towards her room.

Immediately, her thoughts about Shulk's vision, Falcon's attitude, and Robin's plan had more or less gone out the window. At this point, all Lucina wanted was to get out of this nightmare and back into safe reality. And still the ominous creature kept approaching, the eerie lights becoming brighter with each passing second.

"Robin!" shouted Lucina. She began looking about the room for any sign of the mage. "Robin, where are you!?" The girl jumped out of bed, her bare feet landing on the cold hard floor.

Upon standing up, Lucina noticed that a thick layer of fog had somehow lingered into the room from the hall. This fog, however, remained close to the ground and silently crept across the floor. The white and cloudy matter was high enough for Lucina's feet to be completely hidden by it, but that didn't stop the fact that the continuous humming was getting louder and the continuous light was getting brighter. She braced herself, wondering what on earth she would have to fight now, but not before noticing that Robin's Levin Sword was still on the nightstand. Instinctively, she reached for the jagged weapon, swinging it about a few times to get a feel for its weight. The sword was slightly lighter than the Falchion, but it was also significantly shorter, meaning that she was really going to have to gauge her distance with this new foe.

After readying her blade, she turned towards the door only to come face to face with her new enemy. Truthfully, this monster was the most bizarre thing she had ever come across in her dreams.

The creature's body composed of nothing but a large floating eye, with various strands of some red and stringy substance dangling from various parts of its surface area. As it levitated eerily, the strange humming noise became quite loud, and the source of the green light seemed to be emanating from its center. Also, it was almost impossible to notice that the fog drifting into the room appeared to be coming from the floating eye, descending off the top of its head and seeping onto the floor as if a continuous bucket of water had been dumped on it.

"Begone monster!" shouted Lucina as she swung the Levin Sword aggressively. "You are not welcome here!"

The floating eyeball continued to stare at the swordswoman, seemingly unfazed by her apparent threats. The humming noise refused to cease, and Lucina could feel her head start to ache at the nonstop buzzing. She glanced at the camera in the room, wondering if it was possible for R.O.B. to see anything that was going on right now. That was when the monster struck.

The red and stringy strands began levitating before vibrating violently. Sudden sparks of electricity began surging through the eyeball's body before an electric bolt shot from its center. Lucina quickly reacted and deflected the shot with the sword, but the sheer force of the attack caused her to stumble back a bit.

"_What kind of creature is this?_" she thought to herself as the monster began charging another attack.

The monster reeled back and fired another shot, this time forcing the swordswoman to summersault into a dodge, causing the lightning bolt to zap her bed. The bed immediately disintegrated into nothingness, leaving no traces of it behind but a pile of ashes. Lucina picked herself up off the ground, holding the sword out in front of her in defense.

"_It attacks with concentrated electricity. One wrong move and I'm done for._"

She charged forward, preparing to execute her signature Shield Breaker attack on the target. The eyeball maneuvered out of the way, using its midair momentum to strike her in the side with one of its whip-like strands. The lash stung like a knife, and was multiplied tenfold due to the fact that Lucina was only dressed in her hospital gown. She suddenly regretted not coming into this night more personally prepared. She put a hand to her side, only to see her palm covered in blood. And still the creeping fog continued to icily roll over her feet.

The floating eye quickly set itself up for a new attack as it began rapidly spinning the red tendons on its body, and amplifying the sound of the humming noise into a buzzing sound. The noise was excruciating to the ears as Lucina quickly found herself trying to block her eardrums from such an assault. The rapidly spinning wires soon began simulating spinning blades as the creature began approaching her with every intention of cutting her up into little tiny pieces.

"_Not today!_"

The creature sprung forward with a spinning blade, but Lucina was quick enough to block it. The blade was spinning so fast that sparks began to fly as the metal connected, but she was again pushed back, this time against the wall. She looked up to see the eyeball charging at her again. Fortunately, she was able to pull off a perfect Counter, deflecting the monster's attack back at it, and sending it into a chaotic spin in the air. Lucina squinted as the green light pierced her eyes, but she fought through it and retaliated with a slash of her sword, knocking the creature off balance yet again and sending it spiraling before it landed on the ground. The humming sound began to die down as the creature's eye started spinning around in a dizzy state. Sparks of electricity began shooting off in different directions as it tried to lock onto the swordswoman, forcing Lucina to duck in case of being struck by a stray bolt.

"_I've got to end this now before it gets another chance to attack!_"

Lucina stood tall and held the Levin Sword in front of her, using the magic infused within the blade to absorb the spasmodic lightning bolts. She began to approach the dazed creature, the electric strikes dying down as the monster started regaining control of itself. The eyeball monster only had a few seconds to think before it realized how close Lucina was to it. She quickly reeled back and stabbed the jagged blade into the center of the eye, plunging it so deep that the tip of the sword punctured through the other end of it. The monster began reeling and shrieking in pain as the crimson wires surrounding it began to spasm violently, the humming and buzzing noises now becoming uncomfortably loud. Lucina didn't stop there however, as she grabbed the hilt tightly with both hands and began twisting as hard as she could, pushing the blade deeper and deeper into the eye of the creature, forcing it to cry out even louder.

"Return to the hell from whence you came!" shouted Lucina as blood spurted from the monster's eye onto her face. "And never set foot in my dreams again!"

The monster shrieked and howled, but the swordswoman did not let up. She continued to push and push with all her might, refusing to show any sign of mercy to the creatures that had been torturing her these past few nights. She closed her eyes and cried, praying that this final attack would save her from the nightmares once and for all.

That is, until she felt someone grab her wrist.

"_Lucina!_"

Lucina's eye shot open and she froze. She was standing in the dark hospital room like before, only the eyeball creature was nowhere to be found. There was no icy fog, eerie green light, or irritating humming sound. There was, however, flashing red lights going off in every room of the mansion, the sound of an alarm signifying that there was indeed an emergency at hand. She looked down to see that the hilt of the Levin Sword was still in both of her hands, only it was no longer piercing into the core of some hellish nightmare of a monster. No, instead, the blade was plunged deep into the body of someone who was lying in the bed opposite to hers. Robin's bloody hand was clutched tightly around her wrist like some sort of claw. She immediately broke free from the mage's stone grasp, a flood of tears flowing down her cheeks as she constantly screamed, "NO!" The jagged sword stood perfectly straight as it protruded from Robin's abdomen, his face bearing an expression of empty, lifeless emotion. The bell that he had given Lucina for protection was now lying broken and shattered on the floor.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I'm sorry.


	14. Meeting in the Laundry Room?

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p>Chapter 14: Meeting in the… Laundry Room?<p>

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><p>"Pause. Rewind. Replay."<p>

Master Hand snapped his large fingers, causing R.O.B. to react instantaneously on his command. In the darkness of the security room, the Robotic Operating Buddy fiddled about with the controls, rewinding the recorded tape of the mysterious assault that took place in Lucina's hospital room less than an hour ago. Apparently, Robin had taken the liberty of sleeping in the same room as the girl without asking for any kind of permission from Master Hand. The giant floating glove watched patiently as he was shown video footage of Lucina getting up from her bed in a somewhat hypnotized state. It was hard to tell what she was feeling or thinking from the grainy image of the camera (weren't they supposed to get new ones installed?), but it was definitely given that her movements were mostly mechanical. Slowly, she stared at the Smasher lying in the bed next to hers, freezing on the spot momentarily before reaching for the short sword on the nightstand and lifting it high into the air. Robin seemed to have woken up two seconds too late, as he soon found himself with his own sword plunged deep into his body. Lucina looked to have almost lost her balance before she started screaming. After the alarm had gone off, a group of Waddle Dees were on the scene, as were some other Smashers who just happened to be previously sleeping nearby. The timestamp on the video read around 2:15 in the morning.

"Again," ordered Master Hand as he began rapping his fingers rhythmically in the air.

"Affirmative," replied R.O.B. compliantly. "Your current view count for this video is 6."

"There's no need to keep a count, R.O.B.," said the hand seriously. "Just play the video."

And so the robotic Smasher did, but not once did he dare to question what on earth Lucina was apparently doing. This horrifying event only enforced what R.O.B. was suspecting in the beginning, and that Lucina was starting to lose her mind. First she was sent to the hospital wing due to an "accident" she supposedly had with her sword. Then, in the following night, she was caught on camera trying to strangle herself in the middle of the night. Finally, as of last night, she took it upon herself to harm another Smasher almost to the point of death. The video footage didn't lie, but it was confusing to R.O.B. how someone with such a perfect track record could falter so significantly.

"What are we to do with Lucina?" asked R.O.B. curiously. This of course was one of several questions he needed answers for in his memory banks, but he also knew very well that Master Hand was the type of individual who hated being asked too many questions.

The hand was hesitant to reply, as he found himself too engrossed in the creepy video.

"_You_ are to do nothing," he said straightforwardly. "I don't want anyone to come in contact with Lucina. Until we determine what's wrong with her, she is to be considered a danger to us all. She will temporarily be suspended from the tournament until further notice."

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><p>Tuesday morning was probably one of the most depressing mornings any of the Smashers' had ever experienced while living at the mansion. For starters, Robin had become the hospital wing's newest resident, but his condition turned out to be much worse compared to Lucina's. He had suffered some minor sword wounds, as well as a large gash over the middle of his stomach, which would have killed him had help not arrived on the scene when it did. Mario just so happened to be one of the first Smashers to investigate and was able to tend to Robin before things got too severe. Lucina had more or less broken up into tears, the rush of guilt and hatred becoming quite overwhelming for her. By the time most of the Smashers had shown up, Lucina was long gone. The girl had mysteriously vanished, though some of the Smashers claimed to have seen her running down the halls, likely getting as far away from the tragedy as she could. She had dripped a trail of blood through the halls of the mansion, pretty much forcing the Waddle Dees to work overtime in order to clean it all up.<p>

Now it was a new day, and the tournament was still up and running. Master Hand had informed the Smashers that both Robin and Lucina had been temporarily excused from the brawls, and that whatever matches were originally scheduled with them would be postponed. This didn't stop most of the Smashers, however, from wondering what _really_ took place in the hospital wing of Monday night. And while this set of Smashers was conversing and discussing this sensitive topic at breakfast, there were a select few tournament participants who avoided meeting in the dining room altogether, preferring to meet up in a more secure location.

"Seriously Falcon…" muttered Ike as he shook his head. "This was the best place you could come up with?"

"Hey shut it!" retorted Captain Falcon as he plopped himself down on a pile of dirty clothes. "You know as well as I do that no one ever comes to the laundry room! And the Waddle Dees are only in here once a week!"

Indeed, of all the rooms in the mansion, the laundry room was one of the least visited locations on a daily basis. Captain Falcon had taken the liberty of choosing today's secret meeting room, and naturally brought along Ike, Shulk, and Marth for good measure. Incidentally, there were a few other Smashers who had hastily joined up with them out of curiosity and concern, namely Pit, Luigi, Lucario, and Kirby. It was surprising how they were able to sneak everyone into this small room without any of the others noticing. The Smashers were seated about in various parts of the cramped area, though admittedly, there was no real place for them to sit. Most of them were either sitting on or in piles of random clothes on the floor, while the two swordsmen were both stationed on some overturned laundry baskets. Lucario was sitting upright against an upturned ironing table, whereas Shulk was actually sitting on one of the few washing machines. You would think that for a mansion with more than fifty residents, Master Hand would have invested in a bigger utility room. The room itself was pretty dim, the only real source of light being the light bulb dangling on a piece of wire in the middle of the ceiling. Interestingly enough, if anyone were to walk in at this moment, the lights from the hall would fully illuminate the entire room. Needless to say that it was hard for any of the Smashers to get a good look at each other, especially for Falcon since he was wearing his crash helmet.

"Enough of this nonsense," said Marth as he kicked some dirty clothes out of his way. "If it's alright with all of you, I'd like to know what's been going on with Lucina as of late."

"Yeah, me too!" chimed Pit, ruffling his feathers and causing some stray overalls to fall off his back.

"Can it, you pixie!" replied Falcon obnoxiously. "This is supposed to be a secret meeting!"

"Poyo! Poyo!" responded Kirby happily, throwing an oversized pair of tighty-whities into the air (definitely Kind Dedede's).

"Not much of a secret now, is it?" muttered Shulk from his perch on the cube-shaped machine.

"Well if people would stop sticking their noses where they don't belong then maybe I'd be able to officially call it that!" said Falcon in annoyance.

"I think he means that everyone in the mansion pretty much knows about Lucina now," said Ike from the side. "We should all be thankful that Robin didn't die."

"You said it," replied Pit with a cheery smile. "I can't imagine how scary that must have been for him."

Falcon just rolled his eyes, but no one took notice of it with it being so dark in the room. He was honestly pretty irritated that Robin was all people wanted to talk about now. They had good reason for doing so, but that still didn't stop it from bothering him.

"We're all thankful for that," said Marth. "But we need answers right now. I've noticed that Lucina has been acting awfully strange since her accident with the Falchion. I've tried approaching her several times on the subject, but I feel like she's just making excuses for me."

"Hmm…" muttered Luigi. "Maybe she-"

"I don't feel comfortable talking about this with these guys," said Falcon to Ike, but it didn't really matter as his voice was clearly audible by everyone in the room. "Lucina told us to keep this all a secret."

"What?" asked Marth in surprise.

"It doesn't matter anymore," replied Ike. "Like Shulk was saying, everyone in the mansion knows about what happened last night. Even if they're not sure what's going on, it won't take them long to figure it out." He paused momentarily. "There are at least a few other Smashers in that dining room who know about her nightmares."

"Okay fine, I'll give you that," said Falcon unenthusiastically. "But does _she_ really need to be here right now?"

The racer gestured towards the pink Pokémon sitting next to Shulk on the washing machine. Jigglypuff had a half-eaten piece of toast in its mouth, with a plate full of delicious breakfast foods like eggs, bacon, hash browns, and beans in front of it.

"Jiggly!" exclaimed the balloon Pokémon in defense.

"She said she always eats breakfast in the laundry room," said Lucario nonchalantly from the side. He seemed to be the only one who wasn't getting all riled up from this crazy conversation.

"Really?" replied Shulk as he stared down at the pink puffball. "Since when?"

"Since that 'Singing Incident' last year."

None of the newcomers knew about it, but Jigglypuff had actually been the one responsible for shutting down all activity in the mansion for an entire week during the Brawl tournament. At the time, she had been obsessed with watching online videos of the popular Disney movie, "Frozen", and found herself wanting to sing "Let It Go", just as Queen Elsa had so magnificently demonstrated. Jigglypuff practiced and practiced for three days straight, learning every note, every verse (in Pokémon language of course), more or less everything about the song. Then one day, she decided to perform in front of the entire mansion. Now, all of the Smashers at the time knew about Jigglypuff's most infamous ability, so no one in the right mind would have agreed to listen to something like that. Therefore, the Pokémon had taken it upon herself to get a hold of the mansion's PA system and sing "Let It Go" into the microphone. It goes without saying that every creature within a mile radius with ears fell victim to Jigglypuff's voice (even R.O.B. the robot curiously enough). As punishment for this ridiculous act, the Smashers were given a choice of voting between replacing Jigglypuff with the Sandbag for a month or forcing her to eat breakfast by herself in the laundry room until otherwise stated. Needless to say, Jigglypuff wasn't particularly happy with the final results.

"Oh yeah, I remember-a that," said Luigi as he sat obediently in his pile of clothes. "Wasn't that-"

"It's not Jigglypuff, it's the food!" exclaimed Falcon. "Why the hell did you have to bring that in here? None of us have eaten yet!"

Jigglypuff closed her eyes and continued eating nonchalantly, muttering a few words under her breath, but who understands Pokémon nowadays anyway?

"Poyo…" muttered Kirby as he eyed her plate of food in sadness.

Fortunately, Jiggypuff didn't have a mean personality whatsoever, and was more than happy to toss Kirby a few strips of bacon and a hash brown.

"Falcon, there are more important things at stake here," said Ike as he crossed his arms, showing that he had enough willpower to resist something as insignificant as a hearty meal.

"Talking about this will get your mind off of the food," chimed Marth from the side. "I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me everything from the beginning."

"Well don't _you_ sound concerned Mr. 'Fancy Pants'," said Falcon with a snort. "You must really care _a lot_ about Lucina." He gave the Altean prince a glare from across the room, but Marth seemed rather unfazed.

"Of course I am," he replied casually. "She is my descendent after all."

Falcon tripped over his own words a few times as he tried to come up with a response, but truth be told, that last statement was news to him.

"W-Wahut!?" he spat. "You mean to tell me you're related to her!? Since when?"

"Um… Birth?"

"Falcon," said Ike as he put a hand to his head, "she's been living at the mansion for almost half a year and you're _just_ figuring this out now?"

Falcon seemed somewhat flabbergasted by all of this; his reaction was quite funny to say the least.

"Hang on," he said. "If she's related to you and you're a prince… does that mean…"

"Yes, she is a princess," replied Marth seriously. "But that's not important right now."

"Says you! All this time I've been trying to get to know her better and _now_ you tell me she's a princess?"

"I thought everyone knew that though?"

"I did," replied Shulk as he put up a hand.

"Same here," chimed Pit with a smirk.

"I hate you people…" muttered Falcon as he leaned back in his "seat" and crossed his arms.

"Descendent or not," said Luigi from the side. "All of us still care about-"

"I'll get you up to speed on everything that's been going on then," interrupted Ike, though it was not intentional at all. Truthfully, he didn't even hear the green plumber try to speak up in the first place.

The mercenary began informing all of the Smashers in the room about what's been going on with Lucina ever since she started having weird dreams last Friday night. Apparently, she had been visited by several entities over the course of four nights, all of which tried to kill her in her sleep. What was even stranger was the fact that whatever wounds she suffered in the dreams were somehow carrying over into reality when she woke up. No one quite knew how to explain it, and now to make things even more confusing, Lucina had been caught trying to kill Robin in the same night. It seemed that with each passing evening, the nightmares were just getting more and more intense.

"Honestly, we should have just listened to Shulk," said Ike at the end of his explanation. A few of the Smashers turned to the Monado-wielder on the washing machine, who gave a sheepish nod. "Had we done our best to prevent what was foreseen, Robin would probably be here with us right now. We won't make the same mistake again."

"Poyo!" exclaimed Kirby as he threw another pair of underwear into the air and caught it again.

"Unbelievable," replied Marth as he tried to piece all of this newfound information together. "So you mean to tell me the reason why she's been acting so strange is because she's in danger?"

"She was afraid to tell anyone about it," said Shulk. "I actually just found out about this yesterday."

"But I don't understand. Why didn't she tell us about this sooner?"

"She thought that no one would believe her," replied Ike. "I mean, it's easy to believe it now after seeing what's she's been through. But even when she told Falcon and I about it in the beginning, we thought it was a joke."

"Humph," said Falcon with a raised chin. "I always knew she was telling the truth. I just… didn't want you to feel like you were the only one who didn't."

"Interesting…" muttered Lucario quietly with his eyes closed. "For the past few days now I've been sensing a darker presence among the Smashers in the mansion. There was another source of aura emanating from somewhere, like a candle in a forest…"

"That must have been Lucina," said Marth. "If it's true, then it only further solidifies the fact that she wasn't fully aware of what she was doing to Robin last night."

"We should go see her," replied Pit worriedly. "Maybe there's something we can do to help."

"Yeah," chimed Luigi. "Or maybe we could-"

"Master Hand said that no one was to disturb her," replied Shulk. "I think she's locked up in her room right now."

"That poor girl," muttered Marth. "This just isn't fair to her."

All of the Smashers in the laundry room sat there in silence as they contemplated what the best course of action was. In all honesty, they weren't one hundred percent sure where to begin. They found themselves caught between deciding if they should find a way to stop the nightmares, or figure out a way to cheer up Lucina. Chances are she wasn't feeling very well after enduring that horrific event in the hospital room, not to mention that she's more or less been on an emotional roller coaster for the past few days. With Robin being temporality put out of the picture, they were going to have a hard time finding the next piece in solving this complex puzzle. Perhaps a little down time was exactly what the swordswoman needed in order to get her mind away from all of this madness.

"I've got it!" exclaimed Pit excitedly as he patted his fist into his palm. "Let's make her a giant get-well card!"

Kirby raised his hands up in agreement, showering himself with a bunch of dirty clothes, but the other Smashers in the room didn't seem very amused.

"A get-well card, really?" replied Falcon in disappointment. "Where were you when she was lying half-dead in the hospital a few days ago?"

"What, you guys don't like my idea?"

"It's not that we don't like it, Pit," replied Marth reassuringly. "It's just that… we need something a bit more creative than that."

"Aw, well I thought it was a good idea…"

"Jig, Jig, Jigglypuff!" said the pink Pokémon.

"Hey keep it down you cheeseball, I'm trying to think here!" replied Falcon rudely. As a side note, why the hell are Pokémon voices so damn annoying?

"We should make her a trophy for herself," said Ike all of a sudden. "She's been missing out on the tournament because of these nightmares. Maybe a little victory sign would help boost her morale?"

"That kind of makes it look like we're taking pity on her though," replied Shulk honestly.

"Does it?" The mercenary put a hand to his chin as he tried to imagine how the scenario would play out. All he could imagine was Falcon waltzing up to Lucina's room and presenting her with some half-assed kindergarten papier-mâché monstrosity. "On second thought, let's not do that."

The Smashers went back to thinking and brainstorming an idea. In truth, they were looking for something that represented genuine friendship and caring for their fellow brawler without making it look like they were feeling sorry for her. In actuality, Lucina probably wouldn't mind it either way, but even Falcon had certain standards that he felt he had to meet when he hung around her.

"Hmm," thought Luigi out loud. "What if we-"

"I know!" shouted Falcon suddenly. "Let's all-"

"Falcon, Luigi's trying to say something," interjected Lucario.

The racer frowned as he turned to the mustached plumber, who sheepishly averted his gaze upon making eye contact.

"I was-a going to say," continued the green man. "What if we throw a party for-a her?"

The Smashers turned to one another, some of them nodding their heads, while a few others mumbled something along the lines of, "Yeah, that could work," or, "I don't see why not." It was a good idea, and it would also be a good opportunity to get the other Smashers involved. Plus, it would be a nice break from all of the mystery-solving. Trying to figure out what the hell was going on was hard enough without Robin to provide support anyway.

"A party!" exclaimed Pit. "That's a great idea, Luigi! We could decorate the mansion, and play games… and think of all the food there would be!"

The white angel began daydreaming about sweet cupcakes and other colorful pastries, causing Kirby's mouth to water at the mere thought of such delicacies.

"Sounds good to me!" chimed Shulk as he gave a thumbs-up. "I think we all could use a little pick-me-up."

"We could do it today," said Marth as he tried to plan out the event in his head. "It's still morning after all. We could spend a few hours getting everything set up and have it all ready by dinner time."

"I think it'll work," replied Ike with a nod. "And if the others can help, then we should be able to get this all done in no time. Of course, anyone who needs to attend to their daily matches can do so, but that shouldn't be too much of a hindrance."

"I've actually got a match today," said Lucario. "But I will do my best to assist whenever I can."

"Jigglypuff, Jiggly!" exclaimed the balloon Pokémon as she raised a fork triumphantly into the air, which Lucario was able to interpret as, "Count me in too!"

"So that settles it then," said Falcon with a smile as he raised a fist. "We're going to throw Lucina a surprise birthday party!"

"Um, not for her birthday," replied Ike. "It's just a surprise party to make her feel better and to let her know that we're here to support her no matter what."

"Pfft, same thing."

The conversation soon built back up as the Smashers began discussing about the plans for Lucina's party. They didn't know how big it was going to be, but they definitely wanted as many Smashers involved as they could, and there was certainly going to be some form of a cake. It looked like they were going to have to ask Princess Peach for a favor. In the midst of all of this excitement, however, Lucario's animal-like ears picked up the sound of footsteps making their way towards the laundry room door.

"Shh! Quiet everybody. Someone's coming."

The Smashers all froze in the sanctity of the laundry room as the door opened wide. The light coming from the hall illuminated every inch of the cramped room, taking a certain zero-suited bounty huntress by surprise as she peered inside.

"Um…" started Samus awkwardly. "What are you all doing in here?"

Her gaze darted from one Smasher to another. Lucario was lying casually against the upright ironing board in a pile of what appeared to be white undershirts, while Pit and Luigi were both sitting cross-legged in separate piles of darker clothing. The angel also had a few stray pieces of attire hanging from his wings. At the same time, Kirby had somehow made a nest of his own out of various types of underwear, whereas Marth and Ike were both sitting up straight on some laundry baskets. Shulk and Jigglypuff were sitting together on top of the washing machine, along with a finished breakfast plate. Lastly, she noticed Falcon sitting against the dryer on a pile of shirts, with a piece of bright blue undergarment wrapped securely on his helmet. Samus' face turned a pitch red as she recognized the panties on the racer's head as one of her own.

"That's it, Falcon," she said through gritted teeth as she pulled out her arm cannon from seemingly out of nowhere. "You're a dead man."

"Wait Samus! I swear I didn't know these were yours!"

Samus took aim and began charging her signature beam shot, causing the other Smashers in the room to immediately back as far away from the F-Zero racer as they could. Falcon could only stare helplessly into the notorious death-glare of Samus as he waited for the inevitable train of hurt we was about to endure.

"Ahhh… crap."

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Just thought I would brighten the mood from the dark and depressing stuff of last chapter. I wanted to bring in some more character interactions as well since last chapter hardly had any dialogue at all. Also, I love how Falcon says his second-last line as if it were any other female Smasher's undies, his actions would be totally justifiable. Did you like my jokes? Like, how everyone was cutting off Luigi, or how Jigglypuff has to eat breakfast in the laundry room every day. That's funny right? Guys? guys…

Ahem, on a not-so-related note, I have a special announcement to make. This year I'm trying to organize a fanfiction writing contest for the Super Smash Bros. section. It's going to be called, "Smash King24's Christmas Contest 2014". Some of you may remember I did something like this back in 2009. There were over a dozen participants and it was surprisingly quite competitive! This year I want to try and bring it back, so if there are any authors reading this who think they would like to try their hand at it (even for fun!) then by all means, let me know either via PM or in your review. I'm trying to get some real prizes together this year (shiny Pokemon!) so I hope that's more than enough motivation to get you interested. For more information, see my profile for rules and such. I'll be accepting applications starting the 15th of November, and I'll also post a new story to help advertise the contest.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this not so spooky chapter. After all, what's a Smash Bros. story without some hilariously childish antics? Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!


	15. Falcon Bakes a Cake

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thank you to… CavalierShark, Hahli Nuva, scandihoovians, pokemonrhoades, Varanus K, Pitta, crazycarl364, Dapper Dee VI, MahNati, prowessMaster44, Gamerfan64, Namgum, Flare Hedgehog, MisterGreen, squish13, SonicSpeedster, Aurawarrior11, Bluestorm1990, and realisticFantasy for the reviews on either chapters 13 and 14. To my anonymous reviewers, thank you to randomanon, Frank, Truffles, and Lizardon. Oh, and Lizardon, I think I know the answer to your riddle. ;) This chapter's for you my friend. Also, for those of you looking to sign up for the Christmas Contest, check out my other posted story for more information, and either leave a review there or send me a PM. I'll be posting the list of participants on my profile soon. Anyways, I hope you guys brought a snack or something because this chapter's a big one. I recommend taking a break as soon as you get to the next breakpoint. Enjoy.

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><p>Chapter 15: Falcon Bakes a Cake<p>

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><p>It didn't take long to get everyone organized in the dining room since Pit had managed to track down Sonic after the laundry room meeting. The blue hedgehog ran laps around the entire mansion, relaying the party plans to every Smasher he encountered. Of course, he was given explicit orders not to mention any of this to Master Hand for everybody knew he would not have been happy with any of them trying to get in contact with Lucina. Meanwhile, Ike and Shulk had brought everyone up to speed on Lucina's unfortunate nightmares, removing any and all suspicion about whatever rumors were going around. Most of the Smashers were quite understanding and thereafter felt more than happy to do what they could to help prepare for the party. After all, it was the least they could do given the hard times the girl had gone through. Unfortunately, Robin was going to have to sit this one out due to being confined to his hospital room, but oddly enough he wasn't the only Smasher to not partake in the joyous event. A few big-name fighters, such as Ganondorf, the Koopalings, and even R.O.B. either refused to participate or just did not care enough to bother. Their absence during the setup was replaced, however, when Sonic had somehow managed to convince Crazy Hand to join in on the festivities, saying that, "His job as the left hand is to do the opposite of whatever the right hand is doing," to which Crazy Hand had replied, "That's not how that works!" Still, his presence was about as welcome as anyone's considering the Smashers rarely ever got to see him due to how busy he was with organizing the tournament. Surely Master Hand wouldn't get too upset if he were to take a lieu day.<p>

The actual organizing of the party had been brought upon Princess Peach who was notorious for leading these kinds of social events. She was normally the one put in charge of organizing holiday events as well, such as the Christmas banquet, or even Thanksgiving. Captain Falcon, however, made it apparent that he also wanted to be put in charge of organizing the event, and naturally requested that he be given an important task to complete. And so, Peach had come up with a "List of To-Do's" as she called it, and subsequently posted a copy of it on the bulletin board outside of the grand ballroom where the party was going to be hosted. She was well aware that not every Smasher would be able to attend due to the daily brawls, so she divvied out the jobs based on whoever was most available during the setup time. For example, since Greninja didn't have a match scheduled for the day, he was in charge of putting up the streamers, along with Pit, Palutena, Rosalina, and Pac-Man. With this system in place, the Smashers were hoping that they would be able to finish preparing in the least amount of time possible without Master Hand noticing something was up. Thankfully, the Waddle Dees were as loyal as they always were, and were willing to lend as much help as they could for Lucina's cause.

While most of the Smashers were bustling about trying to get everything set up, Captain Falcon found himself in the kitchen alongside Princess Peach. The princess had gone ahead and made Falcon her own personal assistant for baking the cake, seeing as how Mario was caught between the tournament and Robin's condition. Falcon, of course, was perfectly fine with being given such a significant job.

The kitchen itself was a room that only a handful of Smashers visited on a regular basis. For starters, the place was rather large, containing a large amount of storage units and cupboards for various types of kitchenware. It also came complete with two sinks, a large roaster oven, two stoves, a walk-in freezer, and an equally large refrigerator. It was always kept clean thanks to the Waddle Dees, and this was especially noticeable if one were to glance down at the sparkling tiles lining the floor. Incidentally, this was the first time Falcon had stepped in the kitchen since the Brawl tournament.

"Thank you so much for volunteering, Captain Falcon," said the pink princess cheerfully as she reached down into the cupboards to search for a large dishpan.

The F-Zero racer was leaning against the nearby counter with a white apron wrapped around his racing uniform and a chef hat atop his helmet that said, "Falcon Lunch!"

"Aw, don't mention it," replied Falcon with a grin. "It's the least I could do to help! After all, the cake is the most important part right?"

"You bet it is," said Peach as she stood up with a pile of large silver bowls in her arms. "I'm surprised you wanted to help at all with this though." She placed the pile of bowls on the counter before realizing how that last sentence came out. "I mean, I had no idea baking was one of your hobbies."

Falcon bit his tongue and retained a stupid smile as he tried to come up with an answer. He had told Peach earlier that the reason why he insisted on being a part of the baking team was because he himself was also cook of sorts. Or at least, that's what he told her. Truthfully, Falcon was only making excuses in order to secure him a spot in the kitchen. He personally wanted to make sure that Lucina's cake was the best cake she's ever tasted.

"Oh yeah!" replied Falcon with a sheepish laugh as he rubbed the back of his head. "I used to bake cakes all the time back at the institute. It was uh… used to help hone our… um… hand-eye coordination skills! Eheheh…"

Peach merely gave a smile and dusted her apron off before she began dividing the bowls.

"Oh, well then I'm glad you decided to say something," she replied casually. "There aren't that many Smashers around here who have a passion for baking. I think Kirby might be the only one actually."

Incidentally, most of the Smashers in the mansion did not have much experience cooking food period. The only ones who ever cooked meals regularly included Peach, Kirby, Mr. Game and Watch, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, Palutena, and King Dedede. There were a few others like Link and Samus who could make small meals, but if there was ever a time when dinner needed to be handled, usually one of the more experienced Smashers took over. Little did Peach know that Falcon's overall cooking expertise sat somewhere between Honey Nut Cheerios and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

"Good thing I'm here then!" exclaimed Falcon as he waltzed over to the large freezer and peered inside. "Okay, so what's the first thing we need? Eggs and milk right?"

"Yep!" replied Peach cheerily. "Only… the eggs and milk are in the fridge, Captain Falcon."

Falcon glanced over at her, noticing that she was retaining her usual happy expression. He was pretty thankful that Peach was one of the few Smashers in the mansion who were actually patient with him.

"Ah, uh, right," said Falcon embarrassingly as he reached into the fridge to pull out the required ingredients.

"We're also going to need flour, sugar, baking soda, and some vinegar. Do you know where those are?"

"Of course I do! They're… uh…"

Falcon then spent the next five minutes or so scrounging through every inch of every cupboard and drawer in an attempt to find the necessary ingredients. Every time Peach would say something, he would interrupt her by saying, "How else am I supposed to learn!?" to which she would reply, "I thought you already knew that!" He eventually came up with everything they needed and soon the princess began whisking away at the mixture of various foods they had acquired.

"Hey, this smells good already!" exclaimed Falcon as he watched the princess' hand mechanically swirl around the bowl.

"We can't eat it yet, silly," replied the princess with a giggle. "We still need the chocolate mix."

"Oh, right."

Falcon reached over the counter and grabbed the box of chocolate mix he had found in the pantry earlier. He had picked this brand himself, thinking that chocolate would be the best thing for Lucina. In all honesty, he had no idea what kind of cake she preferred, but then again, what girl _doesn't_ like the taste of chocolate cake?

"Okay, so now you just throw that in here," said Peach as she continued stirring, "and then we should be ready to put this in the oven in about… Oh, I almost forgot!"

"Huh? What?" replied Falcon as he poured the entire box into the bowl.

"We forgot to preheat the oven! Oh silly, silly me."

"Well that's no big deal is it?" asked Falcon casually. "Lemme see here." The racer waltzed over to the large kitchen oven at the side of the room and began fiddling with the knobs. The indicator on the small screen was coming up as, "ERROR," suggesting that there was a malfunction with the appliance. "What the hell?" muttered Falcon as he tried setting the temperature again, but still the screen came up with the same error. "Hey Peach, I think something's wrong with the stove."

"Really? Let me check." The princess skipped over to the racer's position and tried preheating the oven, but the error was persistent. It seemed that even the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom didn't have that magic touch. "Who used the oven last?"

Falcon put a hand to his chin as he began to recall who had been previously cooking meals in the mansion. Almost immediately, one two-dimensional man in particular came to mind.

"Game and Watch was cooking burgers in here the other day!" exclaimed Falcon.

"Oh, that would explain it then," replied Peach with a sigh.

It was no secret among the Smashers that Mr. Game and Watch was a good cook. However, the 2D man was also notorious for breaking things accidentally and not telling anyone about it until it was too late. Not to mention, this was the fourth time Game and Watch had broken the stove after using it. It really made Falcon wonder exactly what went on in this kitchen when that flat man was at the helm.

"No matter," said Peach with a smile. "The oven is just having a problem starting up. There's more than one way to turn up the heat." She gave Falcon a wink, to which he didn't know how to respond. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Falcon stood there for a moment as he tried to come up with a way to get the oven to turn on. The racer was very familiar with the element of fire, so when the princess gave him a nod, that more or less confirmed what he was thinking the whole time.

"Alright, I'll do it," replied Falcon seriously. "But you better stand back; this could get dangerous."

"What?" asked Peach dumbfounded, but realized what he was doing when she saw his right arm start to glow with flames.

"Falcon…"

"Wait stop! I didn't mean _that_!" cried Peach as she grabbed the racer's arm.

Falcon glanced at her with a queer look on his face.

"What? You mean to tell me you _didn't_ want me to Falcon Punch this hunk of junk back to life?" he asked casually.

"No, not at all," replied Peach. She paused momentarily before chuckling to herself. "Really Captain Falcon, when are you going to learn that you can't solve all of your problems by Falcon Punching them?"

"Hey gimme a break! You didn't exactly give me any hints to work with!"

"I had something much… safer in mind."

The princess turned around and put two fingers to her mouth before executing an ear-shattering whistle. Falcon had to slam his fists against the side of his head in order to block out a mere fraction of the noise, but even that barely helped at all. The whistling was sharp and high-pitched, and probably gave that Duck Hunt Dog a heart attack if he was anywhere in the nearby vicinity. After the pain was over, a dramatic silence befell the kitchen, while Falcon just stood there shaking his head as if it would help get the ringing noise out of his ears.

"What the hell was that for!?" shouted the racer in surprised. "You almost blew my eardrum!"

Suddenly, the sound of stampeding footsteps could be heard approaching the kitchen doors, causing Falcon to grab onto the side of the counter for balance. Peach just stood there nonchalantly and giggled to herself. Soon enough, the sound of the footsteps disappeared, and numerous Smashers could be heard outside yelling at someone to, "Slow down!" and, "Take it easy!" Eventually, the doors of the kitchen burst open, and the flying Pokémon Charizard flew into the room with a triumphant roar.

"This was your idea!?" cried Falcon as the fiery creature landed gracefully in front of the two Smashers.

Charizard lowered its head as Peach approached it, where she then reached up and petted the top of its head. The fire Pokémon grunted lowly, but it Falcon could have sworn it started purring for a second.

"There's no one better at lighting ovens than Charizard!" said Peach cheerfully. "Isn't that right?"

She began scratching the underside of Charizard's chin, causing the Pokémon to swing its monstrous tail back and forth. Falcon made sure to stand clear for fear of being whipped by a flaming limb.

"A Falcon Punch would have been cooler…" muttered the racer with a pout.

"Charizard, would you be able to help us finish baking Lucina's cake?" asked Peach innocently.

Charizard stood tall and roared, flapping its gigantic wings in approval. Apparently, he was perfectly fine with being rid of his previous balloon-blowing duties with Jigglypuff. He only ended up popping more than he could blow anyways due to his sharp claws.

"Alright!" said Peach excitedly. "But first thing's first. You're going to need a uniform if you're going to work in the kitchen." The princess promptly reached up to Falcon's head and plucked his chef hat from its position.

"Hey, he can't wear that!" cried Falcon. "That's mine!"

"Charizard can't wear an apron so this will just have to do."

The pink princess proceeded to lightly placing Captain Falcon's "Falcon Lunch!" hat on top of Charizard's head. The fire Pokémon seemed quite pleased with its new attire and subsequently gave Falcon a death-glare when he tried to take it back.

"But… but…"

"Okay, now that that's done," continued Peach. "Charizard can you use your Flamethrower attack to start the oven? Pretty please?"

Charizard was more than happy with complying with Peach. No one knew the reason why, but Princess Peach really had a way with sweet-talking Pokémon. Charizard in particular wasn't a Pokémon that easily got along with everyone either. Peach seemed to have this sort of motherly effect on them that was reminiscent of caring Pokémon trainers from the various Pokémon regions. Interestingly, the only Pokémon that didn't seemed fazed at all by Peach's attitude was Mewtwo, but he had gone into hiding sometime after the Melee tournament and no one had seen him around since then. According to Crazy Hand, the psychic Pokémon had taken refuge in a secret room within the basement of the mansion, meditating in hopes that he would eventually awaken as a more powerful being than ever before…

Charizard opened the oven doors and began pouring flames into the appliance. Almost instantaneously, the gas ignited, and the machine roared to life. The indicator on the top of the appliance also read 375 degrees Fahrenheit, which was perfect!

"Thank you, Charizard!" said Peach. "Excellent job!"

The fire Pokémon naturally lowered its head again, to which Peach could only respond by petting it warmly. Falcon had his arms crossed and rolled his eyes in disgust.

"Yes, great, wonderful," he said in annoyance. "You can give me the hat back now. Peach and I can handle the rest of this by ourselves."

Charizard gave the racer another glare before bearing an expression of sadness on its face.

"Hey don't talk to him like that!" said Peach. "He just saved us the hassle of replacing the oven! He can stay here and help us for as long as he wants."

Charizard stood tall and began beating its wings in celebration, causing Falcon to fly backwards and slam against the side of the counter.

"Argh… Fine…."

The next few minutes were dedicated to finishing up whatever whisking was left, and pouring the contents of the bowl into the dishpans. They were attempting to go for a double layered cake, with a layer of strawberry icing to line the middle, but of course, they were going to have to wait until later before adding that bit. Incidentally, there seemed to be a bit of cake mix left over after the main portions had been placed in the oven, so Falcon took it upon himself to bring out a cupcake tray and make a small batch of chocolate cupcakes. Eventually, the trio had everything laid out, from icing sugars to whipped creams to sprinkles, and were waiting on the cake to finish baking. Already it was starting to smell delicious, but the racer was too preoccupied thinking about Lucina to wonder how the cake was going to taste. He was soon standing next to Peach at the sink cleaning dishes while Charizard sat on the tiled floor licking the mixing spoon.

"You know, Captain Falcon," said Peach as she began drying up a newly washed bowl, "it's really sweet of you and the others to do something like this for Lucina."

The F-Zero racer was taken by surprise at this comment and almost dropped a plate on the floor before he caught himself.

"Oh, y-yeah?" he replied, his face getting a bit red.

"Yeah, it really is," continued the pink princess. "She and the other newcomers are still getting used to the way we do things around here. If you didn't ask us about the party, I don't think any of us would have done anything for her. We all feel bad after what's she's been going through lately."

Falcon didn't really know how to respond. Instead, he kept on washing while several odd thoughts ran through his head, but he decided to keep them to himself. Charizard continued to sit nearby with a content expression on its face.

"I know she doesn't have a lot of friends here in the mansion," said Peach. "And I can't imagine how she must be feeling right now after what happened to Robin. But… I think she's grateful to have someone like you looking out for her."

The F-Zero racer bit his lip as he thought about this. In all honesty, he had no idea why he was so adamant about protecting Lucina. Before all of this nightmare crap started, Lucina was nothing more than a regular newcomer who he would occasionally try to get a good look at every now and then. She was a kind and compassionate girl, and Falcon could really appreciate that in a woman, especially since most of the woman in the mansion considered him a laughing stock (well, Samus and Zelda did at least). It was only until recently however, when Falcon noticed his own stronger feelings towards the Ylissean princess. It seemed that with each passing night, the F-Zero racer could feel himself wanting to stay more and more by her side, as if he himself possessed the holy shield that would turn away all of her intruding demons from hell. It was funny, looking back, how Lucina to him had merely been some girl that he just wanted to "get with." Now, she was something much more important, but not even Captain Falcon himself could find the words to describe how he truly felt about her.

"We should all be grateful," replied Falcon casually as he continued washing dishes, "that she's still alive."

Peach nodded her head in agreement, accepting the soaking plate from the racer's gloved hand. Just as she was about to reply, a loud "Ping!" broke free from the warm oven, to which the princess had no choice but to drop her dish cloth.

"Oh! Cake's done!" she said cheerfully. She hurried over to the oven and opened up the door, revealing a shining, chocolaty dessert that smelled like heaven. Charizard immediately got up from its position and glided over to see if the cake came out alright.

"Man, that smells awesome!" exclaimed Falcon as he shut off the water.

Peach put on some oven-mittens and carried one of the pans over to the counter, while Charizard took the other one bare-handed (or bare-clawed, whatever). Falcon then put on some mittens of his own and retrieved the small pan of cupcakes from the oven. Peach then pulled out a Fan (the kind that was used frequently in tournaments until just recently when Master Hand banned them from brawls) and began rapidly fanning the heat away. The cakes soon began to take a solid form and were at just the right temperature to be decorated.

"Alright, now comes the fun part!" said Peach as she began eying the various types of cake decorations they had laid out on the counter. Charizard peered from over the princess' head at the different kinds of sprinkles, colorings, and creams, and wondered where the candles were.

"Well, we're going for strawberry and chocolate right?" replied Falcon. "So…"

The racer grabbed a spoon and the bowl of strawberry cream and began spreading it over the top of the cake. Peach seemed as giddy as a schoolgirl after seeing the racer take initiative.

"Okay! I'll decorate the sides with this icing sugar!" She began squeezing the sugary contents of one of white tubes onto the side of the cake, creating a beautiful flower-like pattern. Needless to say, Falcon and Charizard were both impressed, but the fire Pokémon was somewhat dis-heartened that there wasn't much he could do in this phase. Of course, it didn't take long for Peach to notice the Pokémon's distress, so she simply said, "Don't worry Charizard, I think you've done enough. Here, have a cupcake!" which Charizard was perfectly fine with accepting.

Eventually, the thin sheet of strawberry had been completely laid down (with two coats no less) and the second layer of cake was ready to be placed on top. Naturally, Peach took over accomplishing this task, which she was able to do in a matter of seconds with the utmost grace and accuracy. From there, the group began on laying down the actual strawberry pieces, along with red sprinkles to match, and another layer of icing sugar. Soon enough, the cake had been fully decorated, and it looked absolutely marvelous! The only thing missing of course (besides candles to Charizard's dismay), was something to be put on top of the cake. After some debate, the group ended up settling with some white icing sugar that was laid down in way so that the message, "To Lucina From All of Your Friends" could clearly be seen at the top. Falcon suggested adding a little heart at the end, which Peach was more than happy to comply with since hearts were kind of her thing anyway.

"Alright gang!" exclaimed Peach. "The cake is officially done!"

"Aw yeah!" cheered Falcon.

Charizard also gave a mighty roar in celebration.

"And perfect timing too!" said Peach. "Look at the time!"

The trio glanced at the large clock sitting close to the ceiling on one of the walls. It was almost 5:00, which would give them just enough time to finish decorating the cupcakes before summoning Lucina. Just then, Shulk poked his head into the kitchen, noticing the newly finished chocolate cake.

"Hey, something smells good in here!" said the Homs boy.

"Hey, back off Jack!" replied Falcon defensively. "No one gets a bite outta this until we find Lucina!"

Shulk and Peach both laughed while Charizard just sighed a beastly sigh.

"If you say so, Falcon," replied Shulk. "I don't mean to take up much of your time, but I'm just letting you know that everyone else has pretty much finished with their tasks. We're ready to start whenever you are."

"Oh, that reminds me!" said Peach all of a sudden. "Who's going to be the one to get Lucina?"

"Um, that would be me," replied Falcon quickly. "I'll see to it that she makes it here on time." The racer hastily took a cupcake and put it on a plate along with the icing sugar they had used to write Lucina's message. He then made his way towards the door where Shulk was waiting, but not before throwing off his apron haphazardly. "Oh, thanks again Peach! And you too Charizard! I couldn't have done it without you!"

"Not at all, Captain Falcon!" said Peach cheerfully. "And don't worry about the cake; we'll make sure it gets to the ballroom in time. You better run along now; it's not good to keep a lady waiting!"

Her comment was followed by Charizard's roaring laughter, to which Falcon could only wonder what the hell she meant by the way she said that last statement. Shulk just shrugged his shoulders and led the way for Falcon down the halls and towards the dorm rooms.

"We'll be in the ballroom hiding in the dark," he whispered. "You just lead her in and we'll handle the rest."

"Gotcha. Thanks Shulk."

The Homs boy then ran off to rendezvous with the other Smashers.

As Falcon made his way down the halls, he began to wonder how much decorating everyone had done in the ballroom. Truth be told, he didn't know what to expect, but ultimately he couldn't remember the last time the Smashers had thrown a party that sucked. Not to mention, Robin wasn't going to be there. Just thinking about that made the racer unusually giddy for some reason. Falcon was able to maintain control of himself, however, as he soon picked up the icing sugar tube and began squeezing a large heart on top of the cupcake. His plan was to give Lucina the dessert and perhaps talk with her for a bit before making their way to the ballroom. She was probably still shaken up from the events of the previous night, so all Falcon could do was silently pray that they had made the right call with organizing this party.

* * *

><p>Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.<p>

Lucina stared unenthusiastically at her ceiling from her bed. She had been lying there for almost the entire day, her eyes bearing small bags after all of the sleep loss she had suffered from the last night. Multiple thoughts were still rushing through her head as she tried to remember as much as she could. There's no way it could have all be a lie.

She couldn't stop thinking about Robin. She wondered anxiously how severe his wounds were after she mercilessly delivered a critical blow to his stomach. Of course, at the time, she had no idea she was attacking Robin. All she could remember was seeing a large eyeball staring at her, electrocuting her with elemental attacks. Had it not been for Robin's Levin Sword, she would have been killed for sure, but at what cost? Now Robin was lying dead or dying in the hospital wing, and Lucina was too scared to venture beyond the boundaries of her own room.

After retreating into the sanctity of her dorm room last night, Lucina threw on her signature blue armor and frantically began searching for any kind of weapon. Unfortunately, as Master Hand had previously stated, all of her swords were confiscated from her, even the steel sword she kept behind the bathroom door (not that she would ever think to use it anyway). With no sword to clutch onto, Lucina ended up crying herself to sleep, praying that nothing else would attack her in her dreams. Fortunately for her, the rest of her night was about a normal as anyone else's, but the morning was probably one of the worst she had ever experienced.

Master Hand had put a notice on her door, stating that no one was to come in contact with her until he got some answers. To Master Hand, Lucina had attacked Robin in his sleep, and whether she had malicious intentions or not, he didn't care. All he knew was that Lucina was dangerous and that he wasn't about to subject any of the other Smashers to such a threat. He planned on taking a day away from the tournament this week in order to speak with Lucina and finally get to the bottom of all of this madness. But that of course was the least of Lucina's worries.

Right now, all Lucina wanted to do was to know if Robin was safe. Eventually, she pulled herself to her feet and washed up her face and hair, trying to make herself look at least presentable, before exiting her room. Upon entering the hallway, the smell of something sweet and chocolaty soon filled her nostrils, but the smell was interrupted when she realized the Duck Hunt Duo were standing obediently next to her door. Lucina stared down at them, bearing an expression of neutrality, as if seeing these two animals here was nothing peculiar at all.

"Greetings, Duck Hunt," she said straightforwardly. The Dog sat on the hall floor, but stood tall with its long tongue hanging out. The Duck on its back just sat there idly staring at the wall. "What business do you have here?"

The Dog immediately responded by lifting up a wooden sign from seemingly out of nowhere that read, "Master Hand told us to guard your room and make sure no one went in," in some kind of black marker. The action in itself was quite cartoony, and had Lucina been familiar with the television show, "Looney Tunes," she would have been able to make some sort of connection. Instead, she was kind of taken off guard by the sudden response.

"Well, I'm leaving," she replied honestly. "And if Master Hand has a problem with it, he can talk to _me_ about it."

The Dog put down the sign and raised a different one. This time, the sign said, "He told us to make sure no one went in. He didn't say anything about you leaving."

Lucina gave a small smile at this response. Despite the fact that she and the Duck Hunt Duo were mere acquaintances, it made her feel better knowing that they weren't going to give her a hard time. Little did she know, however, that Duck Hunt couldn't care less about what happened to her and were only letting her go just to spite Master Hand. The Duo kind of had a reputation around the mansion for being troublemakers.

"Thank you, Duck Hunt," said Lucina as she bowed her head and made her way down the hall. "I am in your debt."

She turned the corner and disappeared, not even noticing that the Dog had lifted up another sign that said, "Yeah whatever."

Lucina made her way down the halls, noticing that for late afternoon, the mansion was unusually quiet for some reason. On any normal day, one would be able to hear some form of speaking, or yelling, or even music blasting from one of the rooms, but today, there was nothing but utter silence. The eeriness of it all was starting to make her feel anxious, but still, she trekked onward, taking the shortest route she knew of from one end of the mansion to the next. She could still smell those sweet desserts, but her mind was focused on the task at hand. She did her best to be inconspicuous, as she had no idea what any of the Smashers would say after hearing about last night's incident. The last thing she needed was Master Hand hearing that she had gone directly against his orders, which is why she stuck to the smaller hallways. Incidentally, the only large room she passed through was the foyer, but that room was almost always empty anyways. Eventually, she found herself in the hospital wing, making her way towards Robin's room, which had previously been her own room just the other night. Oddly enough, the door was already wide open, and when she peered inside, she could see Robin lying in the bed with his eyes closed. It was hard to tell if he was alive or dead.

Silently, she crept into the room and up to his bedside. The mage was now dressed in the standard hospital gown, and she imagined that there were several strong bandages wrapped securely around his torso. Most importantly, he was breathing slowly, and it looked as if he was asleep. This sight alone somehow managed to bring tears to Lucina's eyes, but she sucked it up and promptly gave the tactician the biggest hug she could muster. Robin was immediately shaken out of his nap.

"Huh? Lucina?" he said in surprise. Lucina backed off and pushed her hair out of her eyes, giving the other Smasher room to sit up straight. It took him some time, and he looked like he was in pain, but the young mage was able to successfully get into an upright position. Lucina sat down on a chair near the side of the bed, noticing that the Levin Sword was nowhere to be seen on the nightstand.

"Robin…" she replied, but in all honesty she didn't know what to say. She felt guilty, seeing as how he wouldn't be in this state had she not attacked him last night. Surely he knew that it wasn't entirely her fault?

"Easy there," he said warmly. "I'm the one in the hospital bed, not you."

"All I ask is for your forgiveness," she replied, bowing her head in shame. "I did not mean for any of this to happen."

"I understand." He glanced at the wall on the other side of the room. "I should have known better than to do something so reckless. It was foolish of me to think everything would be fine after hearing Shulk's warning."

It is interesting to note that Robin was fully aware that the other Smashers had planned a party for Lucina. He was quite thankful, however, that the swordswoman had taken the time out of her day to visit him beforehand.

"There's no excuse," said Lucina, her gaze lowering. "If I wasn't so weak, I would have been able to handle that creature." Her face bore an expression of frustration and disappointment. "But it seems that no matter what I do, someone always gets hurt by the end of it." Tears started to well up in her eyes again as she recalled the horrifying sight of her hands cutting open Robin's mangled body. "I could have killed you."

"You had no control of your actions," replied the mage reassuringly. "There was nothing you could do. If anyone should be put to blame, it should be me for putting us in that situation."

"When will it stop, Robin?" asked Lucina all of a sudden. "When will it stop? Last night you could have died, but who's to say that tonight something much worse could happen? What if I wake up and start attacking other Smashers in their sleep?"

"That won't happen," said Robin as he closed his eyes. "You're stronger than that, Lucina. I believe in you. You just need to keep fighting until I can determine what is causing these nightmares. My progress has been impeded since yesterday, but by tomorrow I should be able to start doing some more-"

"I can't go on like this."

Robin glanced at her, locking eyes almost immediately. She had a very distressed look about her and she may have been leaning a little too close to him. Something in her eyes was telling the tactician that she couldn't take any more of these "workarounds," and that if something was going to be done about these horrifying encounters, it was going to have to happen soon.

"Lucina…"

"I just can't, Robin. I've tried being patient these past couple of days, but nothing is working. No matter what I do, the nightmares always find a way to break through to me. And it's only gotten worse with each passing day. I don't have time to wait for an answer; I need to do something about it now! If I don't… If I don't…"

Her words trailed off as she tried not to imagine the inevitable. Robin himself felt quite ashamed to hear this from her since he felt it was his job to keep her out of harm's way so long as they were participating in the tournament. That _was_ the task Chrom had originally put him up for anyway…

"I don't know what the others are going to think of me," continued the swordswoman. "Ike and Captain Falcon know the truth, but I know there have been rumors going around about me. Master Hand even imprisoned me in my own room, preventing any of the other Smashers from talking to me. What are they going to say when they see me again?"

"They won't say anything," said Robin sternly. "The Smashers believe in you, Lucina. I know they do. You just need to give them a chance to realize it. There's no point in keeping secrets anymore." The mage cringed as he felt a surge of pain rise over his body, but he held it back as best he could.

"What should I do now then?" asked Lucina honestly. "I'm certain that Master Hand has put the Smashers against me."

"They are not against you; the Smashers are our friends. Mario, Falcon, Marth, all of them. They wouldn't dream of wishing misfortune upon you. You just have to trust them."

Lucina's gaze was still fixed upon Robin's eyes. She knew deep down inside always to trust him and wouldn't think twice about going against his word. She was grateful in a sense to have someone like Robin to fall on to during troubling times like this. He was really the only Smasher in the mansion who understood her completely.

She was soon shaken out of her thoughts when she felt a warm hand around her fingers.

"No matter what happens," said Robin, "by the end of this, you will always have me. I don't plan on going anywhere and so help me gods as long as I'm still breathing, I won't let anything bad happen to you. Even if you ever lose faith in yourself, Lucina, remember that I will _always_ have faith in you."

He squeezed her hand tightly, but she didn't try to fight it. Robin had never tried holding her hand so often until the incidents started occurring. She didn't mind it. Sometimes a hand to hold was all one ever needed to get through hard times. She was surprised, however, that neither Falcon nor Ike had bothered to question her about her relationship with Robin during that moment when they held hands a few days ago. Truth be told, she wasn't sure if she knew the answer herself.

"Lucina, can I tell you something," asked Robin all of a sudden. The sentence was a question, but the way he said came out as some kind of important statement. "You and I have been members of the Super Smash Brothers for almost half a year now, and even before then we've had our own fair share of adventures with one another. I remember when you and I would take some time away from the battles and just sit down together. You would tell me tales about the future of Ylisse and what was to become of the kingdom." Lucina nodded her head, her eyes still fixed on his gaze. "Even back then I had my doubts about what was real or not, if these stories were actually true, or if we were just a band of misfits in way over our heads. Your father taught me to always stand up for the people I care about, and to never let anyone take away the things that are important to me." He brought his other hand on top of Lucina's, cupping it in warmth. "I care about you a lot, Lucina. I care about you more than anything else in the world, even more than the tournament." He paused. "I would give my own life just to see you smile one last time."

By now, Lucina could feel the tears returning, only these tears weren't born of shame or depression. They were coming from another feeling the girl had bottled up inside her, but she didn't quite know how to place it.

"Robin…" she said.

"Dr. Mario said I could die any day now if things don't get better," continued the mage seriously. "I'm not sure what he means by that, but I do know one thing for sure." He closed his eyes, holding back whatever tears were trying to break free, before opening them again and staring deeply into the windows of her soul. "Lucina, I love you."

* * *

><p>Captain Falcon made his merry way down the mansion halls while whistling "Saria's Song," Lucina's "heart" cupcake carried firmly on a plate in his right hand. In his mind, the plan was quite simple: Meet Lucina outside of her room, give her the cupcake, shoot the shit for like five minutes (and let the oh so necessary flirting commence), and then lead her innocently back to the ballroom where the Smashers would jump out of the darkness and yell, "Surprise!" followed by the crazy noises and confetti and whatnot. His excuse for bringing her to the ballroom was going to be something along the lines of Crazy Hand hosting a tournament meeting in order to tell them about the new match schedules. It was a solid plan, and even he couldn't help but grin childishly as he thought about. He just couldn't wait to see the look on Lucina's face upon arrival to the party!<p>

Casually, the racer waltzed down the hall up to her room, but not before noticing the Duck Hunt Duo sitting nearby on the floor at attention. Curiously, the racer approached the two, realizing that they hadn't been seen anywhere near the ballroom helping with the decorating.

"What're you two bozos doing here?" asked Falcon nonchalantly.

The Dog had its tongue out with a blank look on its face, while the Duck on its back continued to stare at the wall without a care in the world.

"Hey, I'm talkin' ta you!"

The Dog responded by lifting up some wooden sign it apparently had with the words, "Master Hand told us to make sure no one goes in here," written in black marker.

Falcon eyed the wording on the sign with a queer look on his face.

"What!? You mean to tell me you've been guarding Lucina this whole time?" he asked.

The Dog pulled out another sign. This time it read, "We were until she decided to get up and leave a few minutes ago." This time, the Duck also joined in with a sign of its own that said, "Idiot."

Falcon's temper fumed as he read the word on the second sign, but ignored it seeing as how there were more important matters to attend to.

"Can you tell me where she went?" asked the racer casually.

The Dog promptly produced another sign that said, "Nope. Sorry. Not." The Duck, again, joined in with its own sign that read, "Did you try the hospital wing?"

"Oh, the hospital wing," replied Falcon unenthusiastically. He knew exactly why she would go there. Not that it mattered anyway. Now Robin was just going to have to sit there and watch as the racer gave Lucina a heart-shaped cupcake and go to the party without him. Easy peasy. "Alright, thanks you guys," continued Falcon before turning on his heels and heading towards the hospital wing.

The Dog and the Duck both sat in the hall for a few seconds before looking at each other and snickering.

Eventually, Falcon stumbled upon the hospital wing. He was hoping that the other Smashers wouldn't think he was taking his own sweet time, because he certainly had tried to get there as fast as he could without dropping the cupcake. He noticed, however, upon entering the hall that Robin's door had been left wide open. Was Lucina still in there? There was only one way to find out. The racer silently crept up against the side of the wall and peered inside, wondering if it was possible to eavesdrop on any conversation. He couldn't hear any speaking, but instead he ended up witnessing something that he truly regretted the very moment he laid eyes on it.

* * *

><p>Robin had pulled Lucina into a kiss. Now, this wasn't just some peck on the cheek or some kiss that you would give an old relative, no, this was a <em>real<em> kiss. A real kiss on the lips. And strangely, Lucina didn't seem to have any problem being locked in such a passionate act with the young mage. The feeling was great at first, but was soon amplified twofold by the mere thought that they shouldn't be doing this, which gave them all the more reason to go for it. It all happened so fast too. One moment Robin was pouring out his innermost feelings for the girl, and the next, they had their hands on the side of each other's faces, their mouths connected in a way that only love could ever describe. It was a great and dangerous sensation, but it ultimately only lasted about twenty seconds before Lucina broke away from Robin, the mage swaying back and forth ever so slightly and bearing an expression of deep satisfaction.

"We shouldn't do this," said Lucina seriously as she put the back of her hand to her mouth. "R.O.B. is probably watching us right now."

"You're right," replied Robin with a sigh, although a part of him really wanted to dismiss her comment and get back to business. "Please forgive me if you will."

Lucina shook her head, but gave a small smile.

"Perhaps another time," she said. "I… I just wanted to make sure you were alright. That's been the only thing on my mind since last night."

"Understandable." Robin leaned back and pulled himself down into his sheets, taking a deep breath. "Well, you have your answer now. Please, don't let me keep you. I can tell you're worried about being caught outside of your quarters."

Under normal circumstances, Lucina would have agreed with him, but for some reason, Robin's kiss had made her feel much better about herself. She didn't care at all what Master Hand or what any of the other Smashers had to say about her situation. All she knew was that she had someone who cared about her, which surprisingly gave her more strength than she would have imagined.

"Get some rest, Robin," said Lucina before leaning over and placing a kiss on his forehead. "And thank you."

Robin smirked, but he tried to play it off cool as if what just happened a few seconds ago wasn't a big deal at all. "Any time."

With that, Lucina said good-bye and made her way back to the hall. Truthfully, Robin's words had given her a newfound sense of confidence, and she felt fully capable of handling whatever creatures the nighttime wanted to throw at her. It was now time to tell everyone what was going on. As she exited Robin's room, she noticed a small plate on the ground with a chocolate cupcake sitting perfectly in the middle. Curiously, the swordswoman picked it up. She noticed that in the center of the cupcake's face, someone had taken the time to draw a perfect heart out of icing sugar.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> God damn, 8000 words. Don't expect another update until next weekend at least. A lot of stuff happened this chapter so let's recap. Captain Falcon baked a cake while other Smashers set up for the party; Peach, Charizard, and Duck Hunt all make their first big debuts; Lucina is still troubled by what happened to Robin and Master Hand ain't happy with her; and finally, Robin and Lucina shared something special together that Falcon couldn't stand to see. Any thoughts? Feel free to share! Also, as of today, the Christmas Contest is officially up and running, so be sure to let me know if you plan on entering! Thanks a lot you guys and have a nice day!


	16. Lucina Dances

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thank you to…Aurawarrior13, CavalierShark, o realisticFantasy o, Namgum, prowessMaster44, pokemonrhoades, squish13, Hahli Nuva, F-ZeroSamus, Pitta, Varanus K, Dapper Dee VI, the dragon stone, SuperPanda9000, Gamerfan64, MahNati, Kitsune-Taichou, Greywolfian, crazycarl364, and SonicSpeedster. Also, thank you to my anonymous reviewers, Lizardon, randomanon, Frank, Smasher, and the reviewers who went without a name. Finally, thank you to the silent readers who have been sticking with this story so far. I'm sorry for the late update, but it's been a hell of a week for me. This chapter gets a little weird; you'll see what I mean. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy.

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><p>Chapter 16: Lucina Dances<p>

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><p>For a mansion that housed over fifty residents plus servants, it sure was quiet around here. Lucina continued heading up and down the halls, poking her head into various public rooms such as the game room and commons area, but not a soul could be found. She was beginning to wonder if she had accidentally fallen asleep somewhere and was dreaming this whole setting. After stumbling upon a wandering Waddle Dee, she was informed that there were some Smashers currently duking it out on the stages, as was expected by the daily scheduled matches. The Waddle Dee in particular hadn't the foggiest idea where the stray cupcake in her hand had come from, but it was likely to assume that the baked good had originated in the kitchen in one way or another. Investigating the kitchen only resulted in yet another empty room, however, only now the odd lack of Smashers was replaced with the lingering smell of something warm and sweet. Where the heck did everybody go?<p>

Eventually, Lucina had come across a lone banana peel that someone had carelessly left in one of the empty halls. She almost didn't notice it at first, and ended up almost slipping on it, which would have been quite funny from a third-person perspective to say the least. It wasn't long after that when the swordswoman had stumbled upon a second banana peel, and then a third one somewhere further down the hall. She found herself following the littered fruit skins like a trail of breadcrumbs, assuming that this was just Diddy Kong being an irresponsible little monkey again. He had a reputation for leaving banana peels on the ground, which annoyed the Waddle Dees all the same for they were the ones who normally had to pick up after him. Soon enough, the trail of yellow peels stopped in front of a large set of doors, which were located in the eastern part of the mansion in an area that Lucina seldom visited herself. She was standing just outside the grand ballroom.

Hesitantly, the girl gripped one of the vertical brass handles and pushed her way in. She knew the ballroom well enough that it was a room usually reserved for special occasions, as it was the only place big enough in the mansion that could host absurdly large parties. She peered into the darkness, muttering a quiet, "Hello?" before opening the door completely. Immediately following this action, the entire room burst to life with illumination; tons of Smashers were standing in the middle of the room as a group, causing the girl to nearly jump out of her skin.

"SURPRISE!"

A lone Party Ball on the ceiling soon popped open, raining colorful confetti down on the whole area. Lucina just stood there with a shocked expression on her face, although she honestly looked more confused that happy.

"W-What's all this?" she asked in surprise.

She immediately recognized Ike, Marth and Shulk at the front of the group, though she was also surprised to see some other friendly faces such as Zero Suited Samus, Ness, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Pit, Greninja, Mr. Game and Watch, Fox, Jigglypuff, Palutena, Luigi, Meta Knight, Charizard, Link, Rosalina, Kirby, Zelda, King Dedede, and Peach. She soon noticed Diddy Kong, Lucas, and Yoshi poking their heads up while wearing party hats, but nearly lost her balance when Pikachu sprang from the center of the group and jumped into her arms, swallowing her cupcake in one big gulp in the process.

"Pi-Pikachu!" greeted the yellow Pokémon as crumbs fell from its mouth.

"Just a little something to brighten your day," said Ike with a friendly smile. "We know it hasn't been the easiest week for you."

At this, Lucina thought she felt her heart stop for a second. Pikachu didn't seem to notice and was quick to jump atop her head like an oversized hat, but the Pokémon was content nonetheless.

"Wait…" she replied with uncertainty. "You told them?..."

"We all know about the nightmares, Lucina," said Marth as he approached her. "There's nothing to be afraid of. We just want you to know that no matter what happens, we're here for you one hundred percent of the way."

Lucina almost didn't know how to respond. All this time she thought her friends would see her as nothing more than a freak, especially after the stunt she pulled with Robin in the previous night. It seemed that she underestimated the loyalty of the Smashers, and just thinking about it made her want to give them all the biggest hug she could muster. As her gaze passed by each and every one of her friends' faces, she couldn't help but give a smile. They had decked out the entire ballroom just for her, stringing party streamers all across the ceiling, setting up tables and chairs around the central dancing floor. Various dinner and dessert foods had been laid out on the tablecloths, which was likely the source of that tasty aroma she had smelled earlier. On the far side of the room stood several rock band instruments, hinting that the Smashers had planned for some live music.

"Thank you," she replied wholeheartedly. "Thank you all. I… I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," said Shulk, giving a thumbs-up. "We're just glad you were able to make it!"

"Yeah, we were wondering what was taking so long," commented Samus. "We thought Falcon got lost or something, but it's good to see you got his invitation."

Some of the Smashers broke into a fit of laughter, but Lucina only gave a blank stare in confusion.

"Hm? What invitation?" she asked.

"The cupcake that Pikachu just ate!" replied Peach. "Pikachu you should know better than to eat other people's presents."

"Chuuu…" muttered the Pokémon in embarrassment.

"Wait a second," said Marth. "Where _is_ Falcon? He should have come here with you."

"I followed a trail of banana peels to get here," replied Lucina honestly. "I haven't seen Captain Falcon all day."

Donkey Kong shook his head in Diddy's general direction, causing the small monkey to scratch the back of his head sheepishly.

"That's weird," said Peach as she put a finger to her chin. "Captain Falcon said he would be the one to go get you."

"Maybe he really did get lost?" asked Link.

"If he did then how come Lucina got his cupcake?" replied Ike.

The Smashers began murmuring amongst themselves about whatever could have possibly happened to Falcon. Marth just gave Lucina a concerned look as she tried to remember how she ended up with the cupcake in the first place.

"_I found it outside of Robin's room_," she thought to herself. "_So why would Captain Falcon just leave it there without telling…_"

She looked up at Marth, but the Altean prince didn't seem to give a reaction.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"I have to find him," she replied. "I think he-"

"ALRIGHT FOOLS! LET'S GET THIS PARTAY STARTED!"

Everyone's attention turned to the entrance of the room behind Lucina where Crazy Hand had come in. The large disembodied glove was dressed in some sort of flashy getup with several sparkling rings on his fingers. The white being also had black hair done up on the back of his hand like Elvis Presley. It was amazing how different Crazy Hand was from his more conservative brother.

"Wait Crazy Hand!" replied Ike. "Falcon still hasn't shown up!"

"Pfft, well too bad for him then," replied Crazy Hand. "You snooze you lose big boys. Oi! Where's my jam?"

The hand paraded into the room with four Koopalings in Koopa Clown Cars trailing behind him and spitting harmless embers into the air. Larry, Morton, Lemmy, and Ludwig began circling around the room with excitement.

"I wouldn't worry about Falcon," said Sonic with a smirk. "The guy's notorious for crashing parties. He's bound to show up sooner or later." The hedgehog quickly ran over to the music equipment and picked up the crimson flying V electric guitar, giving the instrument a strum that roared through the strategically placed amplifiers in the area. Sonic then put his mouth to the microphone and loudly said, "Hey! Where's my bass guitarist?"

Marth glanced at Lucina and shrugged his shoulders before dashing off to Sonic's side. He was soon followed by Zelda who took her place on the keyboards, and DK who sat down behind the drums. Lucina almost didn't know what to do at this point, contemplating whether or not she should run off to find where Falcon went. She feared that the F-Zero racer had seen her secret kiss with Robin, but at the same time, she didn't want to be rude to her other friends for taking the time to set up the party for her. Pikachu patted the top of her head, giving her a reassuring nuzzle that everything was going to be okay (not that he cared about where Falcon was anyways). As Donkey Kong began counting in for "The Boys Are Back in Town," and Sonic let the power chords loose, the Smashers began breaking off into the room, some of them immediately running to the dance floor, and some heading towards the food and chairs. They weren't as concerned with Falcon's whereabouts because the racer had a reputation for being late to important events. Not to mention, a few Smashers like Samus and Jigglypuff in particular weren't big fans of him, and wouldn't really care if he bothered to show up or not. Crazy Hand didn't seem to notice Lucina's distress at all as he didn't hesitate to jump in the middle of the room and start pulling off some funky dancing moves.

Given the circumstances, the best thing Lucina could do was hope that Falcon was alright. She didn't have much time to think about it though because the next thing she knew, Shulk had grabbed her by the hand and pulled her onto the dance floor. The next hour or so became the result of loud rock music mixed with colorful flashing lights. It was fun, but not something Lucina could admit that she was used to.

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><p>The night wore on with much excitement and laughs. The Smash Band (composed of Sonic on guitar, Marth on bass, Zelda on the keyboard, and DK on the drums) were about as lively as ever. Lucina was happy with just sitting down and listening to the music, especially since the Hero-King was a part of the band. She had made a mental note to ask Marth to teach her the ways of the bass guitar (an instrument that he had recently picked up at the end of the Brawl tournament), but she couldn't comprehend how he could handle such a brutish instrument with such delicate fingers. Sonic was surprisingly a better singer than anyone could have guessed, and even Princess Zelda had quite the elegant voice herself. At one point in the evening, Lucina had noticed Zelda give her a friendly smile and a wink. It was good to know that the Smashers were so supportive of her compared to before, and just the thought alone gave her a lot of newfound confidence that had been further boosted from Robin's kiss. That event in itself was an entirely different story altogether, and even Lucina herself didn't know how she completely felt about the young tactician. For now, it was best to keep things a secret, at least until she found out what happened to Captain Falcon.<p>

The next song in the set list turned out to be Electric Light Orchestra's "Don't Bring Me Down," but by this time, Lucina had worn herself out with the dancing. Crazy Hand and the Koopalings were still going at it however, as well as a few others who could take the heat. Mr. Game and Watch in particular had an impressive amount of stamina and was a master of the robot dance, while Kirby and Rosalina's Luma had plenty of fun dancing together to the side. Other Smashers who weren't too fond of dancing like Meta Knight, Samus, and Lucas were perfectly content just sitting off to the side and chatting with others. Yoshi didn't hesitate to return to his spot with three plates of food, as well as a pitcher of fruit punch, but Pac-Man contested it with his own stack of plates, a huge chunk of the cake, and a large bottle of Pepsi.

Lucina had taken some time to sit down and talk over dinner with some of the Smashers. She even got to enjoy some of the cake that Peach had made, which she found out had been partly baked by Captain Falcon. Of course, any kind of conversation was hard to endure when there was live music blasting about twenty feet away, but they made do with what they had. Meta Knight and Fox were both equally curious to hear more about these "nightmares" that had been bothering Lucina in the past few nights, but it seemed that even the Star Warrior did not have a definite answer to her problems. She even told him about the "plugging my nose" tactic that Samus had suggested, but the Star Warrior ended up dismissing that and saying it doesn't really work when one enters a lucid dream. Not to mention, he was convinced that the villain known as Nightmare had nothing to do with her dreams because both the Star Rod and the Fountain of Dreams were still intact (at least to his knowledge). By this time, Link and Rosalina had also joined the discussion, but they were more interested in hearing about the stories than providing their own suspicions, as they honestly had no idea how to respond. Regardless, it was comforting to Lucina all the same to see all of these people supporting her. She wasn't used to getting this much attention all at once, but it really did make her feel better about her situation anyways.

The evening wore on for a couple of hours, and after a brief snack break by the members of Smash Band, the band was ready to take up arms again for the final act of their show. Now it was time for the slow dances.

The band opened up with "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You," and despite Crazy Hand's hair, he was too pooped to do any more dancing, let alone with another person. He ended up just sitting out, which turned out to be more like lying down in a corner of the room. Luigi had found the strength in himself to ask Palutena for a dance, which the goddess of light was more than happy to accept. Peach had asked Lucas to join her on the dance floor for a song, though he was at first hesitant to respond, but eventually complied sheepishly. As couples began taking their place on the floor (even Pikachu and Jigglypuff believe it or not), Lucina couldn't help but feel awkward as she sat between Shulk and Link on the side, wondering who on earth would ask her to dance. It was one thing when someone wanted to dance to party songs, but another thing when it was time to wind down to something slower and lovey-dovey. She wasn't concerned with whether or not someone would try anything funny so much as she didn't want others to feel bad if she chose to dance with a particular person. It didn't help either that the overall lighting in the room had dimmed to a certain degree, painting a somewhat romantic atmosphere on the area. Her thoughts were interrupted when a burly gloved hand was reached out to her, causing her to look up and come face to face with none other than Ike Greil.

"May I have this dance?" he asked politely.

"Oh, y-yes of course," she replied with a stutter, but she tried to play it off cool. It's not like she and Ike had anything between each other anyways.

The two swordsmen soon took their spot on the dance floor and began gliding about, although Ike was somewhat clunky in the way he stepped. Maybe it was the boots? The pair had accidentally almost stepped on the Luma that Kirby was dancing with, and actually almost crashed right into Rosalina and Fox.

"I'm not really good at this," muttered Ike, looking at the ground and trying to focus his feet on not screwing up.

"It's okay," replied Lucina with a smile. "Neither am I."

The two continued circling the room, eventually passing Ludwig and Lemmy who were sitting on the sidelines. The two Koopalings began making kissing sounds in the swordsmen's general direction, causing Lucina and Ike's faces to both turn a bit red.

"Ignore them," said Ike all of a sudden. "They're just being pests."

"Uh, right," muttered Lucina, glancing at the ground.

"Oi Romeo!" shouted Shulk. "You're blowing it!"

Ike gave him a glare to which the Homs boy could only giggle in response. The Monado-wielder was sitting off to the side with Yoshi, and the two were trying their hardest not to laugh. Lucina could only shake her head in response, but then gave a small smile.

"It's good to see everyone in such a good mood," she said. "I can't remember the last time I felt so relaxed like this."

"Same here," replied Ike. "We might as well make the most of it while the night is still young."

The song ended, and the two swordsmen gave each other a bow. The next song starting up turned out to be Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing," a must-have classic on anyone's wedding set list. Upon hearing the opening, Dedede sprung up from his seat with excitement.

"I love this song!" he exclaimed. "Who wants to dance it with me?"

He looked about the room, but none of the Smashers seemed to be paying attention to him because they were too busy either switching partners or casually chatting amongst themselves. The masked Star Warrior sitting next to him could only roll his eyes.

"It doesn't look like anyone is interested," commented Meta Knight casually.

King Dedede looked far and noticed that Ike had just broken off from Lucina and she was about to rendezvous on the dance floor with Mr. Game and Watch. As anyone would have expected, the penguin king seized the opportunity and sprinted as fast as he could to the swordswoman's position. Just as Game and Watch was about to take her hand, Dedede body-checked the 2D man against the far wall, causing Game and Watch to fall to the ground with a painful, "Beep…" Before Lucina could comprehend what was going on, Dedede had taken her hand and pulled her onto the dance floor.

"King Dedede?" she said in surprise. "What are you doing?"

"You and me's gonna dance to this song girly!" he replied excitedly. The king wrapped an arm around Lucina's waist, pulling her close into his body. She tried to resist, or at least give herself a bit more breathing room, but Dedede turned out to be just as strong and aggressive as he looked. A few bystanders like the Koopalings, Charizard, and Diddy Kong couldn't help but laugh at how funny this scene was from a third-person perspective.

"Please unhand me," said Lucina as she tried to break free. She soon began twirling around, not because she wanted to but because Dedede was forcing her with his brute strength. Her efforts seemed to be in vain however, as the king was paying no attention to her and was too preoccupied singing his favorite part of the song.

"I DON'T WANNA CLOSE MY EYEEESS! I DON'T WANNA FALL ASLEEP CUZ I MISS YOU BABEH! AND I DON'T WANNA MISS A- WHOA!"

Meta Knight immediately swooped down and pulled the king off of the ground, causing him to let go of Lucina in the process.

"What are you doing you oversized marshmallow!?" shouted Dedede. "It was just getting to the best part!"

"Sire, I think you've had too much to drink," replied the Star Warrior calmly as he dropped Dedede onto a pile of chairs.

Lucina chuckled upon seeing the king in his overturned state, but almost jumped in surprise when she noticed a circular shadow form in the ground in front of her. Out of the shadow emerged Greninja, the frog Pokémon with the uncanny abilities of… well a ninja.

"Greninj," greeted the water Pokémon casually as it took a solemn bow. Its eyes were in some sort of a half-opened state, meaning that the Pokémon was completely relaxed. Of course, Lucina wouldn't have been able to guess that just by looking at it.

"Oh, you want to dance with me?" asked the swordswoman over the sound of the music.

Greninja nodded and soon took one of her hands in its own webbed one. The two began continuing where Dedede had left off, although this time they began following more of a strut-like pattern, which Greninja was a master of to say the least. For a frog, the Pokémon turned out to be quite elegant on its feet, even taking the liberty of showing off a few ballet moves it had learned.

Meanwhile, by the food and group of chairs, Link was sitting down and watching the different couples dancing to the music. He didn't notice that an adult-sized cardboard box had somehow managed to slip into the room and creep across the floor towards his position. The box jutted up against the side of his leg, causing the Hylian to look down in curiosity.

"What the-?" he said.

Suddenly the box flipped onto its side and Solid Snake sprung up from his hiding spot, standing tall and confident with his hands on his hips. Link almost spat out the soda he was drinking upon recognizing the man.

"S-Snake!?" he said in surprise.

"Evening fairy-boy," replied Snake casually. "It's been a while."

Link glanced about the room, realizing that no one else had noticed the military agent. Snake was one of the few Smashers who had resigned from the company since the Brawl tournament, the other fighters being Wolf, the Ice Climbers, and Pokémon Trainer Red. At the time, Lucas also had the option of leaving the Smash Bros., but he ended up becoming too attached to some of the Smashers to leave, thus making him one of the few Smashers who lived in the mansion that did not participate in tournament events. Truth be told, no one was expecting Snake to return any time soon.

"It has!" said Link, still in a bit of a shock. "How have you been?"

"Been good," replied Snake casually. "Nothing really much to report. I've been getting a lot of work done in the field."

"Ah, that's cool…"

"I don't mean to drop in on you guys unannounced like this, but frankly speaking, I couldn't resist another Smash Bros. party." The agent began scanning the immediate area, noticing that there were quite a lot of unfamiliar faces this time around. His gaze stopped when he noticed Lucina and Greninja dancing in some kind of hybrid waltz. "What's with the princess and the frog? Don't tell me Marth actually decided to go through with that sex change."

"Oh, that's Greninja," replied Link, glancing over at the dancing couple. "He's one of the new Pokémon recruits that joined last year. And the girl he's dancing with is Lucina, a descendant from Marth's royal family."

"Huh, you don't say…" Snake put a hand to his chin as he began examining Lucina's movements. "She really does look like Marth. If it wasn't for the hair I wouldn't be able to tell."

"You going to ask her to dance?"

"Nah. It'd be too weird anyway seeing that resemblance. You know me; I've always been more of a spectator than a participator."

"Nothing wrong with that. Will I see you around?"

"Possibly," said Snake as he began crouching on the ground and replacing the box over his body. "I'm just going to crawl over there and grab some free food. I can't imagine what would happen if Master Hand caught me sneaking around here. You know how he gets when he's not in a good mood."

Link nodded slowly; he completely understood where Snake was coming from. As the military agent slunk back into the shadows, Smash Band's song had come to an end, and a few surrounding Smashers began applauding Greninja and Lucina's graceful performance.

"Thank you for the dance, Greninja," said Lucina as she took a bow.

"Greninja," replied the water Pokémon before it sunk back into the ground and used its Shadow Sneak to retreat to one of the tables where Ness, Pac-Man, and Charizard were playing Parcheesi.

"Okay gang!" said Sonic into the microphone all of a sudden. "We hope you enjoyed the show. We're just about done now, but before we close, we'd like to perform one last song." Sonic gave a glance to Marth who responded with a nod. In the silence of the room, the hedgehog began strumming his melodic instrument in a steady pattern, his bandmates retaining no visible emotion as Sonic tapped his foot. Eventually, DK and Zelda kicked in with their instruments, and soon the whole ballroom was clapping and dancing with enthusiasm. "This one is dedicated to Lucina, a special request that was submitted by our very own Robin, who unfortunately couldn't make it this evening."

The Smashers began applauding while Lucina stood in the center of the dance floor in bewilderment. She couldn't believe that Robin had actually requested a song just for her. Although he couldn't make it to the party, the very thought alone almost made it seem like he really was there, standing beside her and holding her hand.

"_Look at the stars, look how they shine for you. And everything you do. Yeah they were all yellow..._"

The words echoed beautifully in the air, some of the Smashers getting up one last time to dance. Lucina felt someone grab her hand, turning to the side to see Shulk with a warm smile on his face. The look in his eyes said, "Come on!" and soon enough, the two began dancing about the room again. Now, Shulk wasn't much of a dancer, however that didn't stop him from just letting loose and having fun, which is ultimately what Lucina ended up doing in the process. She threw her arms out and began to spin, completely entrapped within the music, the last of her worries about the nightmares vanishing almost as quickly as they came. Lucina had fallen into a state of bliss, realizing that these Smashers whom she referred to as "friends" were some of the best people she had ever come to know in her entire life.

"_Your skin, oh yeah your skin and bones, turn into something beautiful. And you know, you know I love you so. You know I love you so._"

As the song played on, Lucina continued to dance, and life was back to the way it was supposed to be. There were no copycat swordsmen, no demonic floating eyes, or any of that nonsense. All she had was herself, her friends, and the tournament. That's all she ever wanted since she joined the Smash Bros. and for the first time in a long time, she truly felt like things were back to the way they were before. It was strange how music can have such a hypnotic effect on people. Oddly enough, she didn't even know the song they were singing, but the words stuck with her somehow and she felt an emotional attachment towards the melody. Now there was nothing that could destroy her feeling of euphoria, and she planned on keeping it like that for the rest of the night.

Regardless of this, she still wondered in the back of her head where on earth Captain Falcon had disappeared to. It was already well over four hours into the evening, so no one expected him to be showing up any time soon, or even at all for that matter. It wasn't like the F-Zero racer to just skip out on an honest-to-goodness party either. Something must have happened to him. Either that, or he had a perfectly good reason for why he didn't want to show his face.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I wanted to throw way more random Smasher interactions in this chapter (ex. Snake and Lucina dancing, Pit asking Samus to dance, etc.) but I felt like it would be too distracting from the main plot of the story. I know this is supposed to be another one of those "fun" chapters, but I'm afraid this story might get too derailed if I overload on those. Anyways, the important thing to get from this chapter is that Lucina now feels better about herself, as well as what other people think about her and the nightmares. Also, I didn't realize how many real-world references this chapter had, so I hope I don't get sued or something (kidding). If you would like to listen to the songs featured in this chapter, here they are by order of appearance:

"The Boys are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy.

"Don't Bring Me Down" by Electric Light Orchestra.

"I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" by Elvis Presley.

"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith.

"Yellow" by Coldplay.

Hopefully you recognize some of these songs, or at least the last one to help get a feel for what I was trying to portray this chapter. Do you have a favorite song/band? Let me know; I'd be happy to hear it (and I've been looking for some new music to listen to recently). Anyways, like I said this chapter got kind of weird, but I hope you enjoyed it all the same. Thanks for reading guys, see you next time.


	17. Dream Tap

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Fair warning to those who are sensitive to swear words… Yeah there's going to be a lot more swearing (especially F-bombs) in the early part of this chapter compared to normal. If you're sensitive to such things, then I encourage you to skip about a third of the way down the page.

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><p>Chapter 17: Dream Tap<p>

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><p>"Another."<p>

"At this rate you're going to keel over."

"I said another one dammit!"

The fat Italian man behind the bar shrugged his shoulders and poured Falcon another shot of whatever unholy mixture he was brewing. The F-Zero racer downed the glass in mere seconds, his throat burning with a forceful sensation as the alcohol entered his system. After a small fit of coughing, Falcon slammed the glass down on the countertop, causing the other two occupants in the room to stare at him in concern.

"Maybe you should call it quits," muttered Olimar from a couple of stools away.

Falcon glared in his direction, but didn't say one word. He merely breathed aggressively, like a bear preparing to claw at a fish in a riverbank.

The three Smashers were loitering at Wario's bar, a room in the mansion that was rarely ever visited by any of the Smashers except for Wario himself. The bar was located on the same side of the mansion as the ballroom, thus the booming sound of party music could be heard thumping through the walls, albeit muffled to a certain degree. Along the walls of the room were various portraits of Wario's friends, or at least, people whom everyone assumed were his friends since no one really knew much about them anyway. A few notable faces that Falcon could recognize included Mona, Orbulon, and Ashley, but the racer was in too much of a haze to give a damn.

Falon, Wario, and Olimar had been sitting at the bar for about three hours listening to all of the fun going on in the ballroom. Olimar didn't have any intention of skipping out on the party, but when he noticed Falcon walk into Wario's room with a raincloud over his head, he knew something was up.

"I don't get it," muttered the F-Zero racer, his gaze falling to the hardwood flooring. "Why do I bother trying to make everyone happy when nobody gives a shit?"

Wario spat into the glass he was cleaning and began circling around the inside of it with his cloth. He frowned in Falcon's direction, knowing perfectly well why the racer had shown up at his door in the first place.

"Oh please, get over yourself," replied Wario as he rolled his eyes. "Every tournament it's the same thing. You see a hot chick; you fall head over heels for her without a second thought. And then when she's knocked you on your ass enough times, you still refuse to learn your lesson and just keep coming back for more!"

"What did I do to deserve this…"

Falcon looked up with half-opened eyes, but he was leaning on the counter as if his shoulders were made of bricks. Regardless of the amount of alcohol he had taken to offset the depression, he still couldn't stop thinking about Lucina and Robin.

"So let me get this straight," said Olimar all of a sudden. "You went in to Robin's room and saw Lucina in there kissing him?"

The racer's fist clenched tightly around the shot glass as Olimar said those last words. He didn't recall it being as simple as that. There were more factors to the equation, like the part about Robin being a "fucking scumbag" for seducing Lucina like that, or the part about Lucina being a "filthy lying whore" this whole time. Okay, well maybe he was over-exaggerating things just a tiny bit.

"Remind me why you're drinking me out of house and home over this again," commented Wario. "I always thought those two were together."

"They don't have shit together," replied Falcon harshly. "All he does is latch onto her like a fucking leech. I made her a cake, I stayed up late to make sure she would fall asleep, I even pried a demonic hand off of her face! And what do I get after that? Fucking nothing. Nothing but a pat on the back. And what about Robin? He reads a book about Pokémon and all a sudden he's the next Sherlock fucking Holmes."

Falcon slammed his hand on the countertop, signaling for Wario to hit him up with another shot. Reluctant as he was, the fat Smasher just sighed and topped off the glass, to which Falcon accepted in an instant.

"Why the hell do you care so much about Lucina?" asked Wario. "You barely ever talked to her before, and now you're acting like you own her or something."

"Lemme tell you two a story," replied Falcon, cocking his head to the side momentarily before resuming his leaned-over posture. "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I didn't know anything about these newcomers. They joined the tournament like they always do, and get into the swing of things like they always do. Me, being the good Samaritan that I am, thought it would be cool to introduce myself to them. Lucina and I get along just fine, and I always respected her for the woman she was, like I do for all women." At this, Olimar nodded his head, but he knew that Falcon was flattering himself a bit too much. "We started doing this Friday night movie thing about a month ago, just me and her. And you know what? It was a great time! We laughed, we talked, we acted like friends right out of high school! But… I knew deep down that she didn't see me anything more than that."

"Cut the drama, can you just get on with it already?" asked Wario impatiently.

"So there we were, just two friends sitting there watching a movie. It was a nice break from the tournaments and I knew she appreciated my company since we all know she doesn't have a lot of friends."

"I'm her friend," said Olimar, raising his hand sheepishly.

"Then one night," continued Falcon, ignoring the spaceman's comment, "Lucina started having these freakish nightmares. At first it's not a big deal. She wakes up with like a scratch that she assumed was from some monster in her dream, but the next night she ends up in worse shape than before. And then the next night she's outright trying to kill herself in her sleep! And then the night after that, she's caught red-handed trying to kill that white-haired bastard!"

"What's your point?" asked Wario.

"The point is!" replied Falcon. "The only reason why I've been so gung-ho over Lucina is because of her stupid nightmares! She's afraid of her own shadow now, and she doesn't want to spend another night sleeping alone! And if there's one thing I hate seeing, it's a girl being tormented by something she can't control."

Falcon adjusted himself on the barstool while the other two Smashers just exchanged awkward glances with each other. Truthfully, they weren't sure how accurate Falcon's tale was, mainly due to the fact that he was obviously drunk and was only telling them this to make himself feel better. Regardless of the fact that he felt it was his duty to protect her, it still didn't explain why seeing Robin and Lucina kissing made him so upset.

"Falcon," said Olimar as he put down his glass of carrot juice. "I think you should just stay out of their business. Even if it _was_ Robin who kissed her, she was the one who returned the gesture was she not? You can't be mad at her for making her choice."

Falcon raised his hand up to say something in objection, but ended up mumbling some gibberish under his breath. He had to admit, Olimar did have a point. He always knew that Robin had a thing for Lucina, but he also liked to believe in the small voice in the back of his head that told him Lucina wasn't seeing anyone. After all, why else would she bother to spend her Friday evenings with him in front of the television?

"If you ask me, I think this is a complete waste of time," said Wario as he began picking his nose. "There's no point in trying to understand women. They're minds are always changing faster than they can think! One day they're your best friend and the next, they want to shove a Homerun Bat up your ass."

"Speak for yourself," replied Olimar, who knew very well of Wario's history with the girls of Smash Mansion. There were countless tales about the fat man getting his butt handed to him, like the time when Zelda had batted him into the sunset when he tried getting a peak at her "goods," or the time Peach had clubbed him for digging up her turnip garden to get her attention. He had learned his lesson during the Brawl days, and honestly never bothered to take a chance again with newcomers like Lucina or Palutena. Nevertheless, gold coins and money were the only things that seemed to show him the kind of affection he deserved.

"I'm just saying, don't bother with her," continued Wario. "She obviously doesn't like you more than a friend, so there's no point in ramming your head against a wall."

"Great advice!" replied Falcon sarcastically. "And here I thought you two were my friends!"

"Friends my butt," retorted the fat Italian. "You called me a 'fat-ass' the other day."

"And this is the first time you've talked to me since the Subspace Emissary," said Olimar. "And that was seven years ago!"

"The hell? Mario, I could have sworn I just talked to you this morning," muttered Falcon.

"I'm Olimar!"

"Oh, sorry… I was gonna say, you were looking shorter than normal today for some reason."

"Look," replied the spaceman as he shook his head. "If you're that concerned about Lucina, then why don't you just tell her how you feel?"

"Pfft, yeah okay, like that'll ever work. Since when did you become the love guru?"

"I'll have you know that I have a wife and two kids at home," replied Olimar seriously. "But if you don't want to take my advice, then that's fine. You're an adult after all."

That last sentence came off a bit harsh, but Falcon didn't seem to notice. Wario on the other hand, was willing to bet that the reason why Falcon did not want to talk to Lucina was because he was too afraid of being rejected.

"If she tells you to screw off then just go!" said Wario. "Chances are you're probably not good enough for her anyway!"

"I'm good enough for anyone!" replied Falcon. "She just needs to give me a chance! I can still prove myself to her can't I?"

"Prove what though?" asked Olimar. "You said so yourself that Lucina was kissing Robin today."

"Maybe they're not really in love. Maybe she just got caught up in the moment and didn't know how to react! There's still time to turn this around!"

"And do what? Tell Lucina that you're madly in love with her? No offense Falcon, but you're getting in way over your head."

"Huh? What'd you mean?"

"How much do you really know about Lucina?"

The racer seemed rather taken aback by that question. To him, he and Lucina were best buds. Surely there was something dear that the two of them shared that no other Smasher in the mansion had?

"Oh boy, this should be good…" mumbled Wario as he began wiping another glass.

"Tell me five things that you know about her," continued Olimar.

Falcon stuttered before coming up with a direct response. He had to squint a little in order to focus his thoughts, but once he was able to collect them together… he only ended up with a messy pile of information that he wasn't even sure was relevant to the conversation.

"Ugh, well she has a sword," said Falcon.

"Something we don't know?" replied the spaceman.

"She… needs someone to hold?"

"See! There isn't one thing that you know about Lucina personally."

"No wait!" replied Falcon. "She's a princess! I know that much."

"The princess of?..."

"Erm… El-ice. Er, no, was it… I-liss?"

"Ylisse."

"Right! Yeah…"

"Hey, how come you know that?" asked Wario to the short man.

"I thought everybody did," replied Olimar honestly. "Don't you remember that meeting we had at the beginning of the year when all of the newcomers went around introducing themselves?"

"No," said Wario, before briefly scratching his round behind.

Olimar sighed. Sometimes he wondered how these bozos ever managed to get a spot in Smash Bros. in the first place.

"Forget this!" said Falcon all of a sudden. "I don't need to know her life's story! I just want her to be safe! Is that so much to ask?"

"That depends," replied Wario. "But by the sound of things, I'd say she's having a pretty damn good time out there." His statement was soon followed by the sound of the music dying down to a halt, the only sound thereafter being murmurs and voices through the walls. It looked like the party had finally reached its closing. "Seriously, how is it that Master Hand hasn't stopped them yet?"

"I believe Crazy Hand said he spiked his tea," said Olimar.

"What's the point of all this?" mumbled Falcon, smacking another hand on the counter. "I can't say anything without someone throwing their own problems in my face."

"Honestly Falcon, you're moodier than a teenage prom queen," said Wario. "But don't you worry about a thing. I got just the right antidote for your kind of sickness."

The fat man reached under the bar and pulled out a moderately large purple vial. The label on the front had a picture of Ashley's face winking, and when he uncorked the top, fizzing bubbles started to pop out of the top.

"The hell is that?" said Falcon as he shook his head to try and get a better focus.

"This, my friend, is my own secret recipe guaranteed to lift even the dankest of crowds. Manufactured and patented exclusively by Warioware Industries itself, this drink is the key to unlocking your innermost happy-child. I call it, the 'Dream Tap.'" Wario held the bottle up high for all to see, but it didn't look nearly as impressive as he was making it out to be. "One dose of this baby and you'll be dreaming about Lucina till next Sunday."

It was a little known fact, but Wario was actually a successful business owner who ran his own toy and mini-game company, Warioware. There was also a section of the corporation that specialized in explosives, but that department never sold well. His games were usually a real hit among kids, however, and the rising success of the company in recent years was more or less the reason why he was so rich.

Falcon eyed the beverage like a little boy overlooking his presents on Christmas morning. Olimar, on the other hand, didn't seem all that impressed.

"Lemme see that," replied the spaceman, snatching the bottle away from Wario easily.

"Hey! Gimme that!"

"Eye of newt…" said Olimar as he read the ingredients on the back of the glass vial. "Grandma's wig… Kitten spit? What is this, a witch's brew?"

"It's a drink!" replied Wario as he swiped the bottle away from the spaceman. "It doesn't taste very good, but it has its own… um… 'unique' qualities that I'm sure either of you would like to hear about."

"Do tell."

Falcon was slightly swaying back and forth, but he remained silent and kept his focus on the Dream Tap.

"This drink is a special brew that Master Hand told me not to give to anyone in the mansion," whispered Wario. "The formula contains different properties depending on the time of day. In the daytime, it's is just a growth potion. Think of it like a Super Mushroom but in liquid form. If you drink it at night though, something very mysterious happens. Whoever drinks this at night will be instantly knocked out cold for a while, but that's not really a big deal. What _is_ a big deal is the fact that if more than one person drinks this, then they will all experience the same dream at the same time. Talk about an invasion of personal space!" Falcon and Olimar both exchanged glances while Wario gave them a toothy grin. "So you can see why Master Hand would forbid me from giving any of this to you guys. Technically, I'm not even supposed to have it here, but you know me… I hate rules."

Falcon did his best to pay attention to Wario's explanation, and he had to admit that even he was nodding off about halfway through. The part that got his attention, however, was when Wario had mentioned he could use the Dream Tap to enter another person's dream (or so that's how he interpreted it). If this was true, then it was possible for him to go into one of Lucina's dreams and protect her from whatever evil forces were lurking nearby.

"Oh, one last thing," said Wario all of a sudden. "As great as this potion is, it does come with one major side effect. The formula does not have any alcohol in it, but it has a tendency to leave users with massive hangovers the next day. I should know… Heheh. But it tastes like banana so that's good, right?"

"What are you getting at, Wario?" asked Olimar skeptically. "Are you saying you want Falcon to take this 'Dream Tap' so he can go into Lucina's dream?"

"If he really wants to then sure," replied the fat man casually. "It doesn't matter to me honestly; I'm just trying to get him to leave my bar at this point."

Falcon put a hand to his chin, wondering if taking the Dream Tap would be all that worth it. On the one hand, he had a chance at saving Lucina from these freaks once and for all. And on the other hand… he really didn't know if there were any other side effects that Wario wasn't mentioning."

"What happens," started Falcon all of a sudden, "if I die in someone's dream?"

Wario paused for a moment, trying to come up with an answer, but seemed to be drawing blanks.

"I don't know," he said plainly. "No one who's ever used one of these has ever died before."

"Forget it, Wario," interjected Olimar. "That's way too risky. I should have known that we were dealing with black magic the moment I saw the label."

"Who said anything about black magic?"

Olimar gestured to the picture of Ashley on the label, to which Wario could only shrug.

"The little brat likes to throw her face on my merchandise. What can I say?"

"I'll do it," said Falcon suddenly as he slammed his hand on the table. "I'll take the Dream Tap and go into Lucina's dream. Then I can put a stop to these nightmares once and for all. It's the only thing I can do now."

"Thatta boy!" replied Wario happily as he began pouring a small dosage of purple liquid into Falcon's shot glass.

"Hold on Falcon!" said Olimar, putting a hand on his arm. "This isn't a good idea. Even if you do manage to get in to Lucina's dream, there's no telling what could be in there. You don't even know what you're looking for!"

The F-Zero racer calmly pulled away from the short man and lifted the glass up into the air. He began eying every angle of the enclosed liquid, watching each of the small bubbles fizzle up to the top. He could have sworn he heard a little girl laughing somewhere in the distance.

"I'll know it when I see it," he said. "I don't want to see Lucina in anymore pain. Even if it means I'll never waking up again."

"Just so we're clear, I never said that," interrupted Wario hastily. "As a matter of fact, forget that I ever gave you anything. I was never here." Olimar frowned at the fat man, to which Wario could only smirk, knowing full well that he either assisted or condemned Captain Falcon for life. "Oh, and if by some freakishly small chance you do end up dying, I call dibs on the helmet."

"I'm not going to die," replied Falcon, closing his eyes. "I'm just going to take a nap. See you boys in the morning."

With that, the F-Zero racer downed every last drop of the Dream Tap, smashing the glass down on the countertop and shattering it instantly. A few seconds after that, the racer bobbed left, and then right, and then back to the left again, before toppling over and falling from his barstool to the cold, hard ground. Wario then glanced at Olimar, offering up the Dream Tap bottle, but the spaceman kindly declined with a wave.

"Well, you better haul his ass out of here," said Wario before cleaning off the countertop of his bar.

"Me? Why do I have to?" asked Olimar. "You're the one who drugged him!"

"I've got work to do. And besides, the bar's closed now. Better get a move on shorty."

Olimar sighed before lifting up his whistle and giving it a loud blow. Almost immediately, a group of multicolored Pikmin paraded into the room and surrounded Falcon's body. They all put their tiny hands underneath him, and on the count of three, lifted him up just enough that his butt was off the ground. Using their iconic, "Heave-ho! Heave-ho!" chant, the Pikmin carried the F-Zero racer out of the room and down the hall. Olimar was quick to hop off of his seat and follow his workers out.

"For someone who couldn't care less about other people's problems, you sure weren't hesitant to help," said Olimar as he left the room.

Wario continued wiping the countertop in silence. He gave an uneasy glance to the Dream Tap bottle sitting nearby, but thought nothing of it after he picked his nose and found a nice juicy booger. The taste was simply scrumptious.

* * *

><p>"…And then the guy says, 'That's not a Mechon. That's my wife!'"<p>

Lucina burst into a fit of laughter, while Ike gave a mere chuckle. In all honesty he didn't find Shulk's joke as funny as Lucina's laughter, which is ultimately what was so comical in the first place.

The trio of friends were making their way back to the dorm rooms. By this time, most of the other Smashers had already turned in for the night within their respective rooms. The Waddle Dees were left in charge of cleaning up the ballroom tomorrow morning, but in the meantime, Ike and Shulk had decided to walk Lucina back to her room out of chivalry. Even they could tell that tonight was one of the best nights she had experienced in quite a while.

"I'd like to see what one of these Mechon look like one day," said Lucina with a smile. "They sound very interesting."

"They sound interesting, but they're not nearly as fun to talk to," replied Shulk jokingly. "Maybe I can convince Master Hand to take us all on a field trip to the Bionis."

"Now that's something I'd like to see," commented Ike.

After a night of dinner, dancing, and of course, drinking, the heroes were starting to get pretty tired. It must have been close to midnight by this time. Lucina's dorm was actually on the far side of the mansion compared to Ike and Shulk's, so when they inevitably came across their rooms, Lucina made it apparent that she was perfectly fine with walking back by herself, but that it was very kind of them to offer anyways.

"What about your dreams tonight?" asked Ike. "Do you need another one of us to stand and guard?"

"No thank you," she replied. "Everyone's pretty tired this evening, so I'd like it if you could both get your sleep so that you're ready for the tournament matches tomorrow. Besides, Master Hand has Duck Hunt guarding my room, so if I run into any problems, they'll be the first ones to know."

Truthfully, she wasn't feeling as bad about the nightmares as before. In fact, she felt so confident in herself that she almost _wished_ something would attack her in her dreams tonight. Sword or no sword, Lucina was finally beginning to overcome the fear of being alone in the dark.

"Alright, if you're sure," said Shulk. "If you need anything, you know where to find us."

"That I do. And thank you both again for the party. It was a truly wonderful experience."

"Thank you for coming out," replied Ike with a smirk. "We'll see you in the morning. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

The swordswoman continued on her way to her dorm room, passing by and saying goodnight to a few other Smashers who were heading to bed for sleep. She was so thankful to have such caring friends, but despite all of this, she was still wondering where Falcon had been this whole time.

As she turned the corner to her hall, she saw a small group of Pikmin being led by Olimar dragging Falcon's body at the far end of the hall. Instinctively, she ran over as quickly as she could, bypassing the Duck Hunt Duo (who were actually asleep, some bodyguards huh?), and stopping just as Olimar was about to round the next bend.

"What happened to Captain Falcon?" she asked with concern.

Olimar nearly jumped out of his suit at the girl's question because he didn't realize she was standing behind him. Her motion also startled the Pikmin, which promptly dropped Falcon on the ground with a "Thud!" before they scrambled about and lifted him up again.

"Oh, Lucina!" said Olimar casually. "Didn't see you there. Uh, don't worry about Falcon, he just… He had a little too much to drink."

Lucina leaned over a bit to get a better view of the racer's face, noticing that his cheeks were quite the reddish color.

"Where was he?" she asked.

"At Wario's bar," replied Olimar straightforwardly. "He was getting a little too beer-happy and ended up falling off the stool and hitting his head. Thank goodness he had the helmet on."

Obviously, Olimar wasn't prepared to tell Lucina about the Dream Tap Falcon had ingested. As a matter of fact, even he himself wasn't one hundred percent sure about how it worked. He was all the more curious to see how this evening would transpire.

Lucina could only stare in shame, for she knew exactly what had driven Falcon to this point. She knew that he wasn't one to go overboard with drinking, unless it was with friends, and he wasn't even at the party! The cupcake invitation added with this scene only gave her one definite answer in her head: Falcon had witnessed her kiss with Robin.

"Please," she said, "let me-"

"No need, dear!" interrupted Olimar as he began directing his Pikmin with hand signs. "These guys can handle it. You just make sure you get your sleep. We don't want you to have another accident now, do we?"

He led his Pikmin off down the hall and then to the next corridor where Falcon's room was. Lucina could only stand there, stricken with the thought that it was her fault why Falcon was left in this broken mess of a state. Her hand fell over her heart, and she took a deep breath in the silence of the mansion hallway.

"Thank you for everything, Captain Falcon. You truly are one of the best friends I've ever had."

She made her way back to her room, but not before tapping the Duck Hunt Dog on the shoulders. Both animals immediately jumped at attention like rookie soldiers in the military. By the time they realized what was going on, Lucina had already disappeared into her room and shut the door. The duo Smashers then glanced at each other and shrugged their shoulders before curling back up on the ground. The Dog made sure to write up one last sign and lean it sturdily against the wall before falling asleep.

"_Do Not Disturb._"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I'm glad how this chapter ended up turning out, even though I was a bit slow at writing the beginning. Thank you to Namgum, Gamerfan64, Lizardon the Dragon, CavalierShark, scandihoovians, Pitta, Hahli Nuva, pokemonrhoades, Digilady99, Varanus K, prowessMaster44, WR3000, crazycarl364, MahNati, realisticFantasy, SPN027, F-ZeroSamus, Greywolfian, and my anonymous readers for reviewing. Come next chapter, the Fifth Encounter will be upon us, so in the words of Ike… "Prepare your anuses." Ugh, I mean, "Prepare yourselves!" Heheh. Thanks for reading!


	18. The Fifth Encounter

It Came from Lucina's Head

**Author's Note:** So I recently got around to playing AND finishing Fire Emblem: Awakening this past weekend. I wasn't able to experience all of its features because I wanted to rush through the campaign mode and get the gist of the story down. The reason why I wanted to get past that before writing this chapter is because this chapter will probably have the most connection towards the game so far, thus I wanted to make sure I was staying "true to the lore" or whatever since I know a lot of the people reading this are avid readers in the Fire Emblem community. But this is Smash Bros. dammit! Rules don't apply here! Speaking about rules, what the heck is up with the whole time travel thing in FE:A? Seriously guys, if you're making a game, or a movie, or a book, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT put anything even remotely related to time travel in it! Honestly, if it was so easy to go back in time, why didn't the bad guys just, I don't know, go back in time to stop Lucina from going to the past in order to resurrect the dragon? And wouldn't Lucina coming in contact with her younger self just cause some sort of time paradox anyway? Ugh, such a mess. It was an awesome game, but they didn't really have an explanation for these unanswered questions, so if someone who is more versed in the story than I am could clarify for me, that would be great. I'd love to see an explanation for this.

Anyways… Um… Enjoy chapter 18.

* * *

><p>Chapter 18: The Fifth Encounter<p>

* * *

><p>It took about an hour or so for Lucina to finally settle down from all of the excitement of the evening. She ended up going to bed in her blue armor yet again, and admittedly she still wasn't getting used to it. The only reason why she started doing this in the first place was because of the evil encounters in her dreams, because it seemed that her clothes would carry over into the dream world. Not only that, but everything else in the mansion seemed to exist in this parallel universe as well, albeit a bit more obscure and not nearly as comforting. The fact that she didn't have her Falchion was also a tragic factor, and she made a mental note to confront Master Hand about this whole stupid issue, though in all honesty, she was actually waiting for <em>him<em> to approach _her_. How is it that he would let the Smashers getting away with throwing a late night party during the weekday, let alone as a warm sentiment for Lucina? She recalled overhearing Crazy Hand mentioning something to a few curious Smashers that he had "put him to sleep," but other than that he gave no obvious hint. It still amused Lucina how different the two hands were from each other, and even funnier still how Crazy Hand seemed to naturally fit in with the other Smashers while Master Hand remained to be this Supreme Being that ranked higher than anyone else in the mansion. She planned on learning the secret of Master Hand and Crazy Hand's origin sometime in the future, but for now, she was preoccupied with some more… intrusive thoughts.

"_Why on earth would Captain Falcon do such a thing to himself?_" she thought as she stared up at the dark ceiling from her bed.

Truthfully, she was referring to the way Falcon supposedly drank himself stupid at Wario's bar while the rest of the Smashers were busy having a good time. Apparently, he was the one in charge of inviting Lucina in the first place (and invite her he did) though he did not hesitate to run off as soon as she got the message. How much did that F-Zero racer witness?

"_It was unexpected_," she thought, furrowing her eyebrows. "_It happened completely on accident, and I couldn't take control of my emotions…_"

She didn't want to believe that the reason why Falcon had left in such a hurry was because of Robin's kiss. But what other reason was there? Despite how he acted around Robin, Falcon wasn't one to outright _hate_ people. Was it by embarrassment perhaps? Or maybe he just didn't want to interrupt them on their "alone time?" No. There was no denying it. Captain Falcon had a soft spot in his heart for Lucina, but just thinking about it made her feel uneasy. She admired him for his confidence and athletic abilities, but she was in no position to start thinking about relationships. She wasn't even sure how she felt about Robin! She almost wished things went back to the way they were when no one paid attention to her and all she had was her small circle of friends to talk to. Ultimately, she was going to have to confront Falcon and Robin about this issue, but she knew it was going to be awkward as hell. She was more comfortable talking to Robin about these sorts of things anyway. Still, she couldn't deny that since the nightmares began, she had been opening herself up to Falcon with each passing day. Perhaps the uncanny racer thought this was his personal invitation to "try her out" or something? For all she knew, Falcon could have had these feelings from the beginning of the tournament.

"_I just hope he's alright_," she thought, turning to the side and closing her eyes. "_He shouldn't have to put himself through this just for my sake_."

Lucina was a strong fighter and an even more valuable friend, but if it was one thing she hated, it was being a burden onto others. She knew in her heart that deep down, Falcon was a caring individual, and would sooner throw himself in the way of a speeding vehicle in order to save the ones he loves. The same thing could be said about Robin, only for some reason, Lucina couldn't help but think that she was the only thing in the mansion that the tactician really cared about.

Eventually, Lucina's thoughts began to fade into grey blurbs, and one thought train would lead to another before her brain officially shutdown. She didn't know what to expect from this night as far as monsters were concerned. She also didn't know how things could possibly get any worse after the previous incident with Robin's Levin Sword. Well, at least she was by herself, so if another monster did decide to show up, no one else would be harmed by it… or her own actions.

It was funny how her overall attitude towards this whole situation had completely changed over the course of the week. She had gone from asking her friends for assistance to not even bothering anymore. It's not that she felt she could handle the problem on her own so much as the fact that she didn't want anyone else to get hurt because of her. Of course, this was something that she didn't want the others to know about, but how else was she going to convince them otherwise?

The night wore on quite naturally unbeknownst to Lucina. She didn't end up having any dreams for a while. Instead, she just had these subconscious thoughts floating around in her head, bouncing off one another like the square ball in Pong bouncing off of the paddles.

"_You're stronger than that, Lucina_," echoed Robin's voice. "_I believe in you_."

"_It's not like you to throw in the towel_," came a voice from Falcon. "_Like, remember that time you and I were in a team battle against Donkey Kong and Bowser? We were losing so hard during the match, but we kept fighting together and we pushed ourselves as far as we could go!_

"_If I have to put a straitjacket on you by the end of this week, then so help me, I will_," said Master Hand sternly.

"_There's nothing to be afraid of,_" echoed Marth's calming voice. "_We just want you to know that no matter what happens, we're here for you one hundred percent of the way_."

"_It's all make-believe after all_," chimed Ike.

"_Lucina._"

Lucina's eyes shot wide open, but she immediately squinted from the sudden burst of white light in her view. She found herself standing up straight, although she was no longer in her dorm room. Heck, it didn't even look like she was in the mansion anymore! She seemed to be suspended in some kind of white void, where there was no ground, no sky, or even any gravity for that matter. Everywhere she looked was just an endless sea of light, and if she didn't know any better, she would have thought she was dead. There was no doubt in her mind that she was experiencing another dream again, but if this was true, then why did the environment suddenly take on a completely different form unlike before?

"Lucina," called the familiar voice again.

The girl froze at the sound of her name, for the source of the voice seemed to be coming from a few feet behind her. Slowly, she turned around, a feeling of hesitation and doubt building up inside her; for she thought she recognized the male voice belonging to the entity. Was it another monster? Was it a Smasher? Her questions were immediately answered when she found herself standing face to face with a man whom she had not spoken to for quite a long time.

"Hey there, sleepyhead," said Chrom with a welcoming smile. "How are you doing?"

Lucina almost didn't know how to react as she found herself standing there with her mouth agape. From his shining blue hair, to his still white cape, to the legendary Falchion tucked securely in its sheath, the man standing before her was none other than Prince Chrom, the very same man who saved the continent of Ylisse during the dark ages. It was also during those dark times when Lucina had last spoken to him before joining the Super Smash Bros. along with Robin. There were occasions during the tournament when Robin had summoned Chrom using his Final Smash, but that incarnation of her father was nothing more than an astral projection, just an empty shell. Seeing him now of all times was very unusual to say the least. It seemed as though her father hadn't aged a day since they last met.

"Father…" she ended up saying, although she was more in disbelief than anything else. "What are you… doing here?"

It was not unnatural for Lucina to have dreams about her mother and father, for she will admit that she misses their company sometimes. Life for her wasn't the same as it used to be. Back then, they were all just a traveling band of Shepherds, destined to rid the world of some untimely evil. Why now of all times would Chrom suddenly appear in her dream, let alone in a very vivid manner similar to the nightmares of the past? Surely this must have been some kind of illusion.

"You called me here," replied Chrom casually. "You are no longer afraid."

Lucina just stared at the swordsman with a confused expression on her face. What the heck was he talking about?

"Your nightmares," continued Chrom. "They are warning signs, hinting to a greater evil that is lurking in the shadows of your consciousness. It's thanks to your friends that you have overcome that fear, and is the exact same reason why I stand before you now."

"I… I don't understand," replied Lucina with uncertainty. "How can you know about the nightmares? I haven't seen you since…"

"Come with me," he said, reaching out a gloved hand towards her. "I will explain everything."

Lucina eyed his outstretched limb as if it were a foreign entity. How was her father able to communicate with her like this? More importantly, how could she just assume this was real? For all she knew, Chrom could have been another one of those monsters in disguise, waiting to pounce on her the moment she let her guard down. Nevertheless, the sudden appearance of him definitely took her off guard, and she found herself standing in quite the dilemma, unsure if whether or not this man asking for her hand was her real father at all.

"How do I know it's really you?" asked Lucina. "Father."

Chrom flipped his cape to the side, revealing the Mark of the Exalt on his right arm. This mark was the same one that had been embedded into Lucina's left eye at birth. But was it proof enough?

"You're just going to have to trust me," replied Chrom calmly, reaching out to the girl yet again. "Please, Lucina. Take my hand."

Lucina was hesitant to respond, but it wasn't like she had much of a choice. She trusted her father more than anything else in the world, and to think that this act could be a mere trick sickened her to the bone.

"Take my hand."

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath before approaching the swordsman and placing her hand in his. The next thing she knew, her vision started to fade away into complete whiteness, blinding her to the point where she couldn't tell if her eyes were open or not.

* * *

><p>"Link, Mario, Ness, Ike, Villager, Little Mac…"<p>

Captain Falcon began reading the names of the Smashers out loud as he walked down the cryptic corridors of… wherever he was. He actually had no idea where he going, but there was no doubt in his mind that the Dream Tap had invoked this fictional plane.

Falcon was standing in what appeared to be a long and endless hallway that seemingly spanned on for infinity. The walls were textured with an obscure purplish color that pulsated red, as if the very room itself was some kind of living, breathing organism. After ingesting the Dream Tap, Falcon found himself waking up here, barely able to find his footing due to the squishy floor beneath him. He was feeling a little lightheaded, but overall not nearly as bad as he was prior to falling asleep. It must have had something to do with being in the dream world, but he didn't have time to think about it anyways. He just kept looking back and forth as he maneuvered down the corridor, like a glimmer of light wandering through the darkness. For some reason, the hall was awfully warm and despite its creepiness, it gave the racer some sort of comfort. Along the sides of the walls stood several doors in varying shapes and sizes, each with a wooden sign pinned to them with names of each of the Smashers.

"…Dedede, Falco, Bowser, Luigi, Game and Watch…"

Most of the doors were of a simple wooden build, but some of the more interesting ones like the doors belonging to Meta Knight and Zelda, were a little on the small side, and were also sealed with an overly large padlock. He had stopped for a moment to peer into a room that had Kirby's name on the door, mainly because the door was both petit and colorful. Opening the door only revealed the little pink puffball of a Smasher sitting in a playroom with a bunch of toys and junk food piled around. Kirby looked like he was having a blast, but didn't notice the F-Zero racer watching him. Falcon decided to leave the Star Warrior alone, for witnessing that scene in itself was proof enough for him that these doors were not just any regular doors. No, these doors were gateways into every sleeping Smasher's mind, the very plane on which dreams can thrive.

"…Marth, Pit, Shulk, Megaman, Sonic…"

The racer had also taken a peek inside of Samus' room earlier mainly out of curiosity, but regretted it when it only revealed the bounty huntress to be a psychotic maniac who spent her dreams physically torturing some oversized lizard she referred to as "Ridley." He had even stumbled upon his own door, but when he went inside to see what was going on, he ended up back in the same hallway as if nothing had changed. This dream was only getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

"Lucario, Palutena, Waddle Dee, Waddle Dee, Waddle Dee… Waddle Dee… more Waddle Dees…"

Yes, it seemed that even the Waddle Dees had their own fair share of dreams. Who the heck cares about those though?

"Rosalina, Lemmy, Wendy, Iggy, Ludwig, Morton, Roy, Larry, Lemmy, Bowser Jr…"

Little did Falcon know that the shape and size of each of the doors directly depended on the intensity of the dream of the user. For example, Kirby's door was smaller than the norm, suggesting that his dream was not nearly as mentally stressing when compared to Samus' dream and her larger door. Who knew what kind of condition Lucina's door would be in?

"Greninja, Donkey Kong, Toon Link…"

Falcon stopped when he noticed the next door in line was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was just a giant gaping hole in the wall, suggesting that someone or something had outright plowed right through the door that used to be here. Through the hole, Falcon could see vast grassy plains and farmland, and he could also feel the nip of a calming breeze on his chest.

"This must be it…" muttered Falcon before he glanced at the floor, noticing Lucina's sign carelessly tossed to the side. The racer picked up the wooden plating that displayed her name before looking far across the Ylissean plains. "Don't worry Lucina. I'm coming for you."

Falcon promptly dropped the sign and ran off into the distance, searching far and wide for any sign of the blue-haired swordswoman.

* * *

><p>When Lucina opened her eyes, she found herself standing in the middle of a grassy plain just outside of a small ranch. A couple of horses were idly standing by, tied to a nearby fence post. She could see great mountains rolling in the distance, and the sound of birds chirping was a nice breath of fresh air after waiting in that void. As she looked about the environment, the cool wind brushing her cape up against her side, she couldn't help but feel a sense of belonging.<p>

"I know this place…" she mumbled to herself.

"Father! Watch me!" called a little girl's voice from behind.

Lucina turned around to see Chrom standing on a dirt area with his hands on his hips. A young blue-haired girl was swinging a wooden sword about near a makeshift scarecrow. The scarecrow itself was nothing impressive, as it had its face covered by a bucket helmet, and it seemed to wield a broom as a weapon. The little girl seemed to be practicing her swordplay on the dummy, pretending as if it were an actual enemy soldier from an invading continent.

"I'm watching, Lucina," replied Chrom casually.

The sound of her name struck the older Lucina like a bullet. Suddenly, her memories of this ancient place had returned to her. This ranch was a merely a private home that Chrom used to take her on the weekends when she was younger. The scene between the father and daughter playing before her had very much been played before somewhere in the threads of time.

The little girl, dressed in casual country attire that matched her hair color, swung left, then right, and then twirled around and swiped upwards, knocking the bucket clean off of the scarecrow. Chrom began applauding the performance before the girl giggled and took a bow, almost dropping her sword in the process.

"Nice job!" he said with a laugh. "I see you've been studying the swordplay of the great Hero-King."

"I can almost do all of his moves!" she replied confidently. "Look! Here's Dolphin Slash!"

Little Lucina crouched down and slashed up high, although her feet barely left the ground. She quickly lost her footing and fell over, kicking up dust into her mouth in the process. Chrom let out a small chuckle before getting down and helping the girl up. Lucina, who had been witnessing this whole event from about five yards away, could only cringe at the scene.

"_Ugh_," she thought. "_Now I remember this_."

"Are you alright, Lucina?" asked Chrom as he helped the girl to her feet.

"Yes, Father," she replied. "I'm fine. I just tripped, that's all."

"Mastering the Hero-King's techniques is no easy feat. You shouldn't push yourself so hard."

"But I want to be strong like you!" The girl stuck her tongue out at her father childishly. "How else am I supposed to get better if I don't practice?"

"Follow the patterns I showed you," replied Chrom as he unsheathed his weapon. He began tapping the tip of his blade against various parts of the scarecrow's vital areas. "The armor is always the weakest at the joints, so focus your thrusts there. Jab, jab, swipe. And be sure to stay clear of enemies with spears, for spears will always outrange a sword."

The girl sheathed her small wooden sword, making a pouty face.

"I've already practiced all of those before!" she complained. "When are you going to teach me something new?"

"When you've shown me that you understand these simple techniques," replied Chrom, sheathing his Falchion, "then we can move on to the next lesson."

The blue-haired swordswoman watching from afar couldn't help but shake her head at the child's ignorance. She couldn't believe she used to be that stubborn, especially around her own father.

"Oh yeah?" said the little girl. "Well I know a technique that you haven't mastered yet!"

"Oh really?" replied Chrom with a smile. "Do you mind sharing it with me then?"

"Yeah. It's called… Tickle Fight!"

The girl immediately pounced on the young man, sending them both toppling to the ground with her on top. Chrom didn't have any time to react and soon found himself at the mercy of his own daughter.

"Lucina!" he cried. "Haha! Lucina stop!"

"Never!"

As the two rolled around in the dirt wrestling each other, the elder Lucina couldn't help but stare. A flurry of mixed emotions was welling up inside her, some of guilty origin, some of yearning origin, and some of nostalgia. She remembered the days when her father was exactly what he was supposed to be: A dad. Chrom wasn't any prince of Ylisse or captain of the guard. He was simply Chrom, Lucina's father, and probably the best dad any kid could ever ask for. The very sight of the love these two shared for each other caused a tear to come to Lucina's eye, as if she had recently dug up an old memory she had long locked away for safe keeping. Eventually, Chrom collapsed, and little Lucina put her hands up in the air triumphantly.

"I win!" she cheered.

"I'll get you next time," replied Chrom with a laugh. "You caught me off guard."

"Excuses!" replied Lucina before she got off her dad. Chrom immediately pulled himself to his feet.

"Alright, that's enough practice for today," he said. "Go on and play; I'll call you when dinner's ready."

The girl let out a small giggle before running up and kissing her father on the cheek, and then dashing off with one of the smaller horses. As Chrom watched her ride around the grassy plains, he couldn't help but give out a small sigh.

"They sure grow up fast, don't they?" he muttered.

He turned around, locking eyes with adult Lucina. Lucina almost didn't realize he was actually looking at her, for she was under the impression that this was all a playback from her memory. She stood there silently as the man approached her, but she didn't try to move at all. She just kept staring at him, unsure of how to react or what he was going to do.

"Lucina," he said, standing but a few feet away from her. "You remember all of this, don't you?"

Lucina glanced past him at the little girl riding the horse. Her blue hair bounced majestically in the wind as she laughed.

"I do," she replied, turning back towards Chrom. "But… why are you showing me this?"

Chrom took a deep breath before giving a direct response.

"There is a great evil lurking within you, Lucina," he said. "An evil so vile and sinister that if you don't stop it soon, it's going to consume you. Grima has returned."

Lucina thought she felt her spine tingle at the sound of the fell dragon's name.

"Grima?" she asked. "But that's impossible. Grima was defeated at the hands of the Shepherds."

"He was," replied Chrom. "But a fragment of his being now resides within your very soul. A cursed seed has been planted in your consciousness, and with each passing day it grows larger. Your emotions are the source of his energy."

Lucina couldn't believe what she was hearing. For a second, she thought her father had been playing her for a fool. Actually, she almost wished that this was all some kind of sick joke that Chrom made up on the spot, but the look in his eyes told her otherwise. She remembered Grima's death very clearly since she was one of the warriors who helped deliver it unto him. How was it that he could revive himself, let alone without the aid of his loyal followers?

"Your dreams are the key," continued Chrom. "Every negative emotion you've experienced has only added to his power. It all began with one event that ultimately triggered his awakening."

"It can't be…" she muttered to herself. She began to think back to when this whole mystery began. If what Chrom was saying was true, then Grima's awakening must have been triggered during that night in the living room when she was fearful the most…

"I was able to contact you tonight because something about you changed," said Chrom. "You were not afraid. You were glad, and you were confident in yourself as a person and as a fighter. Grima cannot see through these kinds of emotions; they stand against him greater than any holy shield would."

Lucina had her friends to thank for that. If it wasn't for their support, she probably would have ended up having another one of those stupid nightmares instead of this dream.

"Father," she said. "If Grima is trying to resurrect himself just as you said… Is there a way to stop him?"

"There is," replied Chrom as he unsheathed his weapon. "The fell dragon is nowhere near as powerful as he used to be in his current state. You must use your exalted sword—the one that is handed down in our bloodline—to pierce his scales. If Grima isn't destroyed then the world you know may very well be plunged into an age of darkness. History may repeat itself just as it did a millennia ago."

Lucina glanced at the shining blade of Chrom's Falchion as she thought about her situation. On the one hand, she felt afraid, for she knew the terrifying power of the fell dragon when she witnessed it firsthand in the alternate future of Ylisse. On the other hand, she knew she was the only one who could stop him. If the dragon had really planted itself inside of her mind, then surely she was the only person who could get rid of it, like trying to get rid of a bothersome wart. This also explained where the evil entities in her dreams had come from. The Gengar, the False Character, the Wallmaster, they were all mere puppets summoned by Grima in order to break her down. Like Chrom said, Grima's power was weak, so he had no choice but to feed off of Lucina's despair for energy. The fell dragon probably didn't think she would have figured it out by now. She was going to have to reclaim her sword from Master Hand in one way or another.

"Very well, Father," she said with a nod. "I know what I must do now. I'll-"

"Hold it right there bub!"

Lucina and Chrom both glanced in the direction of the new voice to see Captain Falcon standing tall with his feet firmly planted in the grass. He had a strong finger pointed directly at Chrom for some reason and he looked rather pissed.

"Captain Falcon!?" replied Lucina in surprise.

"Who are you?" asked Chrom, drawing his sword in front of him.

Falcon puffed out his chest and rubbed his index finger across the underside of his nose. He had an unusually large grin on his face, the kind that he showed off when he was feeling confident in himself in a brawl.

"Step away from the lady, monster!" he shouted. "If you come quietly, I promise to only break your legs!"

Lucina immediately realized what Falcon was talking about and put her hands up in defense.

"Wait, Captain Falcon!" she pleaded. "This isn't what it looks like! This man is no monster, he's my-"

But she was silenced when the feeling of cold steel penetrated her abdomen, stabbing through the weak points in her armor with ease. Her eyes went wide with shock, and her face drained into a sickly pale color as she turned in the direction of her assaulter. Chrom yanked the sword out of her ribcage, causing a stream of blood to pour out of her and paint the grass crimson. Lucina fell to her knees, staring up into the eyes of the man she thought she could trust.

"Father…" she muttered, blood dripping down her lips. "I…"

"_Foolish girl_…" replied Chrom, although it didn't sound anything like her real father. It sounded much more distorted and nothing like a human at all. "…_Did you really believe you could fool me that easily?_" His eyes became a beet red, and he appeared to have sprouted black wings and a pair of elongated horns on his head. His tongue became snakelike, and he seemed to grow fangs as he glared down at the broken girl before him. "_I am the wings of despair, and I will have life once again_." He reeled back, preparing the plunge the Falchion into her face. "_I shall start by taking yourssss!_"

"Not on my watch you bastard!" cried a heroic voice. "Falcon Kick!"

Falcon zoomed straight for Chrom, scorching a path through the ground as he flew. His flaming foot collided with Chrom's side, launching the swordsman into the air, but he was quick to recover thanks to his new-grown wings.

"_Pathetic human_," taunted the demon. "_Your feeble attacks cannot harm me. The fell dragon cannot be toppled_."

"I don't know who the hell you are and I don't give a damn!" responded Falcon. "You're going to pay for what you did to Lucina! Come on!"

Falcon sprinted towards the creature, but Lucina didn't even make a reaction. She just sat there on the ground beaten, betrayed, and honestly scared for her life that Chrom had actually been Grima in disguise this whole time. The entire world around her suddenly became desolate and barren, as if she had stumbled upon some kind of post-apocalyptic Ylisse. All of the luscious grass had been reduced to dirt and stone, and the trees became all withered and dead. The horses were now rotting piles of meat on the ranch, and the house itself was broken and smoking like it had barely survived a bomb blast. Rising fires could be seeing growing in the distance, and the once beautiful countryside had been reduced to nothing but a wasteland. The little girl and her horse were lying as a pile of bones in the outer field. Falcon didn't seem to notice this drastic change in scenery, however, as he continued charging at the flying foe above.

"Falcon Dive!" shouted the F-Zero racer as he leaped up into the air.

Grima was quick to respond and promptly shifted out of the way before slamming Falcon in the back with his sword. The racer landed on the ground but quickly summersaulted back into a standing position.

"_Tiny human, you have no power in this realm_," said Grima as he conjured a dark pulse of energy in his hand. "_Be gone!_" He fired the projectile towards Falcon's position, but the racer was agile enough to barely dodge out of the way. The resulting blast ended up creating a crater in the earth's surface.

"I got all the power I need right _here_!" replied Falcon as he stuck up a middle finger in the demon's direction. "Why don't you come down here so we can settle this like men!"

Grima chuckled and floated down to the ground, swinging his sword in a threatening manner.

"_Fool_," he said. "_I am no man_."

He charged at Falcon with incredible speed, slashing the racer across the chest with a force that was nearly blinding. Falcon cried in pain, but he regained his footing and began darting back and forth in the dirt.

"I ain't afraid of you, you horny freak!" retorted Falcon. He dashed right, and then left, and then to the left yet again, bluffing the enemy with his fancy footwork. "Here's a little greeting card complimentary of the Super Smash Bros.!" He dashed to the side of the monster and lunged toward him. "Falcon PAWNCH!"

The force of the blow knocked Grima clean off of his feet, and the demon was set flying several yards away into a pile of broken tree wood. Falcon quickly skidded to a stop before cracking his knuckles triumphantly.

"Show me your moves, BITCH!"

As if on cue, Grima rose from the pile of wood into the sky, but not in the human form of Chrom. No, instead the fell dragon spread its large unholy wings, and roared with a booming hatred that actually caused Falcon to flinch in his boots. The dragon form turned out to be bigger than Falcon would have expected, and it seemed to block out the entire sun (or whatever was left of the sun anyways). Thunder and lightning began clapping in the atmosphere, and soon the entire area had been painted in a cloud of darkness. Lucina could only watch in horror as her ultimate nightmare was finally coming to life right before her own eyes. Falcon was actually hesitant to follow up with that insult he just threw.

"Um…" he muttered. "I think now would be a good time to leave."

Suddenly, a zombified hand sprung out of the ground and grabbed Falcon's ankle. The racer fought and kicked back until the hand finally let go, but not before an entire body had risen out of the ground. The creature seemed to be dressed in mercenary armor, but its skin was rotting and chewed to pieces by worms. It began moaning like some sort of undead monster from a low budget horror flick as it lifted up its rusted axe and began approaching the racer.

"Zombies," said Falcon with a shake of head. "You gotta be kidding me."

The Risen warrior lunged at the racer, but Falcon was quick to retaliate with a Falcon Kick. More bodies began rising out of the ground thereafter, and the racer actually took a second to calculate how long it would take for him to kill them all, but the cry of his dear friend told him otherwise.

"Falcon!"

Captain Falcon glanced towards the ranch to see Lucina collapsed on the ground like before, only this time those zombie creatures were closing in on her position fast. She managed to dodge a sword swing with a roll and retaliate with a swift kick that sent the creature propelling back into one of its comrades, but she was being quickly overrun. She tried crawling away as fast as she could, however, with a wound as deep as the one Grima had given her, there was no way in hell she was going to escape.

"Hold on!" replied Falcon. "I gotcha!"

The racer sprinted up to one of the creatures and delivered a Raptor Boost uppercut to it, knocking its head clean off its body. He immediately followed up on another monster with his so-called "Knee of Justice" (a fan favorite among the Smashers of the mansion) and then took care of one more with a powerful smash attack. More Risen started to close in on their position, and Falcon knew there would be no time to fight them all. Instead, he quickly offered a hand to the swordswoman, but she ended up gazing up at him hesitantly.

"Can you stand?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," she replied sheepishly as she tried to get up, but the pain in her torso was proving to be a bit too much for her to handle.

"Well pardon me then!"

"Wait, what are you- WAH!"

The next thing she knew, Lucina had been swept off her feet into the arms of Captain Douglas J. Falcon. She cringed at the sting of pain surging through her body on contact, but she knew this was the only way they would be able to escape this hellhole.

"Let's go," said Falcon seriously before he dashed off in the direction of the house.

Meanwhile, Grima was still screeching and summoning undead warriors from the ground. Several colored lightning bolts began striking randomly all over the place, forcing Falcon to dodge left and right, not to mention the fact that zombies were approaching them hastily from the south.

"Damn, those things are faster than they look!" he exclaimed as he dodged a lower-flying spear in his direction.

"Don't underestimate them," replied Lucina as she wrapped her arms securely around the racer's neck. It was at that moment she realized that Captain Falcon had actually somehow managed to make it into her dream, but nevertheless, this was something she was going to have to ask him about later… provided they made it out of this mess alive.

Soon enough, the racer had made it to the house, carefully placing Lucina back on her feet. The swordswoman stumbled for a bit, but she maintained her balance by grabbing the wall. In a flash, Lucina tore the cape off her back, twisting it into a thick rope before wrapping it securely around her waist to stop the bleeding.

"We can't fight the Risen," she said as she fearfully watched the approaching horde of zombie soldiers, more of them starting to pop out of the earth. "We're outnumbered one hundred to two."

Falcon scanned across the army of creatures, noticing the fell dragon rising higher and higher into the black sky. Indeed, it looked like all hope was lost, but thankfully Falcon had one final trick up his sleeve.

"No," he replied. "One hundred to one."

In a matter of seconds, the racer removed his helmet, and hastily set it atop Lucina's head.

"Captain Falcon, what are you-"

But she didn't even get a chance to respond because the racer had hastily put a finger over her lips before she could finish her sentence. The world around her seemed much darker now, for the lens of the helmet tinted everything in a blacker shade. She did notice, however, some of Falcon's sharp facial features, and she never would have guessed for him to be the kind of guy to have brown ragged hair. The racer gave her that childish smirk that he always gave during the tournament matches, causing her to just stare back in confusion at what he was plotting.

"Watch your head in there," he said before opening the door to the beaten house and shoving Lucina inside. She immediately fell to the floor in the shack due to her wounds, but realized what Falcon was trying to do upon contact.

"No! Captain Falcon!" she cried. She tried to pull herself to her feet but the F-Zero racer had promptly slammed the door shut before she could do anything. "CAPTAIN FALCON!"

She pulled herself up to the door and tried opening it, only to realize that the door was locked. She began desperately yanking and pulling on the knob, but stopped when she noticed that the door itself had completely changed. The old rundown door had suddenly been replaced with a sturdier mahogany version, and it bore a striking resemblance to that of the doors in the mansion. She quickly turned around, noticing that she was no longer standing in an old beaten up shack on a ranch in Ylisse, but in her own dorm room at Smash Mansion. It was nighttime, but it was hard to tell how late in the evening it had become. All of her belongings were exactly where she had left them, and even the balcony window was letting in some light by the moon. She was still wearing Captain Falcon's helmet.

Lucina collapsed to the floor, leaning her back against the door of her room. She was still bleeding from Grima's assault, but the pain in her torso did not feel nearly as bad as the pain in her heart. With shivering arms, she pulled Falcon's helmet off of her head and held it in front of her, staring through the visor, hoping that Falcon could somehow materialize into his helmet as if he were a piece of a whole that had been long forgotten in a dream. After a few seconds of silence, she could feel tears running down her cheeks, and she bit her lip with such force that it almost caused her mouth to bleed.

"Captain Falcon…"

She hugged the helmet close to her body and wept over the loss of her dear friend. It wasn't until the sun began to peak over the horizon that she finally fell asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> So yeah, anyways, back to what I was saying earlier about FE: Awakening. I think that they did a really great job with the game but the whole time travel aspect just didn't really… Um… Guys? Why are you all staring at me like that? Was it something I said?

*angry mob sounds*

Ugh, I think I left the water running at home. Gotta go! *runs off*


	19. Tourney Halt

It Came from Lucina's Head

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Thank you to squish13, SPN027, Greywolfian, Hahli Nuva, Varanus K, F-ZeroSamus, pokemonrhoades, MahNati, Gamerfan64, prowessMaster44, crazycarl364, Dapper Dee VI, Pitta, Namgum, Digilady99, marshmallow-princess and Aurawarrior13 for reviewing! Also, extra special thanks to marshmallow-princess for pointing out the technical error back in chapter 5. Apparently, I had written something along the lines of Lucina holding her nose and humming at the same time. It turns out that holding your breath and trying to hum is nearly impossible (go ahead and try it, I dare you!) so I've gone back and replaced that small issue with something more suiting. Thank you as well to the anonymous reviewers for clarifying some of Awakening's "plot holes" to me. I can live with the thought of both the past and present timelines existing in parallel universes.

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><p>Chapter 19: Tourney Halt<p>

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><p>Wednesday morning was probably one of the laziest weekday mornings in the history of the Smash Bros. tournaments. Simply put, most of the Smashers had slept in due to all of the crazy partying that had taken place in the night prior, thus an overextended breakfast had to be held in order to compensate. It wasn't normal for the Smashers to have a late brunch to kick off the day, but it wasn't like this was anything new to them anyways. The Smashers who did not attend the party ended up having breakfast scheduled at the normal time, so when Ike entered the dining hall at about 11:00, he wasn't surprised to see a lot of the Smashers from last night eating and conversing amongst themselves. Some were in worse shape than others, but otherwise, today was just going to be another normal day of matches.<p>

"Hey-a Ike! Come-a sit over here!" called Mario from the far end of the table.

Ike glanced ahead to see the red plumber sitting with Zero Suited Samus, Meta Knight, Pit, and Mr. Game and Watch, with a few other Smashers sitting and talking at some places in between such as the Zelda crew (minus Ganondorf), Olimar (who was looking a little uneasy), Sonic, Fox, Yoshi, Kirby, and the DK duo. Meanwhile, a bunch of Waddle Dees were bustling back and forth like they always did picking up plates, cleaning, or serving food. One such creature waltzed up to Ike and handed him a tray full of breakfast food, which half consisted of some leftovers from the other night (he actually got an extra serving of chicken). The swordsman casually made his way over to the group while at the same time saying good morning to everyone before sitting down in between Mario and Samus, while the other three Smashers lined the opposite sides of the table.

"So, how's everybody doing?" asked the swordsman, pouring himself a glass of milk.

"A little tired, but not too bad," replied Pit optimistically. "That was one crazy party last night!"

"Tell me about it," said Samus as she stirred her mug of coffee with a teaspoon. "I've never seen you move those legs so fast."

"Is there any other way to dance?"

"Apparently so according to King Dedede," mumbled Meta Knight.

Game and Watch rubbed the back of his head where he had fallen when Dedede shoved him. The poor guy didn't even get a chance to dance with Lucina like he wanted to.

"Also, is it just me, or was anyone else surprised that Marth could play the bass?" asked Pit.

"He said he only started picking it up last year," replied Ike. "The whole show turned out great if you ask me. What about you, Mario?"

"I was not at-a the party," said the red plumber in response. "I was-a too busy beating up-a Bowser in the tournament."

"Beep beep (_Did you win at least_)?" asked Game and Watch.

"Oh yes, of-a course!" replied Mario. "Bowser is-a no big deal for me. We've-a fought a bunch of-a times before. He always takes-a things personally."

"As expected by any villain to a hero," chuckled Ike. "Bad guys never change, do they?"

"BEEP (_Nope_)."

"Anyways Ike," said Samus all of a sudden before taking a sip of her coffee. "Did you sleep well?"

"It was alright. Although I had the craziest dream…"

"Really?" asked Pit, through a mouthful of toast and eggs. Game and Watch snuck a hand onto Pit's plate to grab an extra helping of the bacon, but the white angel didn't seem to notice. The 2D man wasn't subtle about it, however, as every movement he made seemed to generate some sort of pixelated sound, which Meta Knight caught onto and promptly slapped his hand away.

The Star Warrior himself didn't have any food in front of him. As a matter of fact, no one could ever recall seeing Meta Knight eat anything while he was at the mansion. He more or less joined his fellow brawlers for breakfast just for the company, but there were rumors going around that he lived on a secret stash of candy he kept under the bed in his room…

"Yeah, I don't really know how to explain it," said Ike as he picked at the meat on his plate. "I just remember it being hard to see… And Shulk was there… And Captain Falcon."

"BEEP, BEEP beep (_Speaking of which, where is Captain Falcon_)?" asked Game and Watch casually as he cocked his head to the side frame by frame.

"I haven't seen him since the party," replied Pit. "Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think Captain Falcon even went to the party!"

"Yeah, we already went over this," muttered Samus. "Falcon didn't show up even though it was his job to invite Lucina. We're lucky she followed Diddy Kong's trail of breadcrumbs, otherwise who knows how long we would have waited for her."

"You mean trail of banana peels?"

"Same thing."

"So no one knows where he went then?" asked Ike seriously. "That's strange…" Truthfully, Ike was curious as to why Falcon would pass up a chance to hang out with Lucina, especially when the racer was so adamant about delivering her invitation in the first place. Even more peculiar was the fact that none of the Smashers who went to that party seemed to know of his whereabouts at all.

"Knowing-a him, he's-a bound to show up sooner or later," said Mario reassuringly. "He has a way with-a surprising us when we least expect it."

Just as the Italian plumber was about to take a chomp out of his stewed tomatoes, a robotic hand reached out from behind and tapped his shoulder. The Smashers all turned around to see R.O.B. standing behind Mario with the same blank look in his eyes like there always was.

"Good morning, Mario," said the robot politely, although his monotonous voice barely had any feeling behind it. "I am sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but I require your assistance in the hospital wing. Please come with me."

Ike exchanged an uneasy glance with Meta Knight, while Mario retained a rather confused expression.

"Is it-a urgent?" he asked. "Does-a Robin need something?"

"It is not Robin," replied the robot before turning around and shuffling towards the exit.

Mario turned to his friends, who all seemed to be as dumbfounded as he was. He immediately put down his utensils and got up, saying an "Excuse me," before leaving the room. The five friends at the end of the table remained silent for a few seconds as they wondered what on earth R.O.B. could possibly have been referring to by his last statement. The silence was broken when Mr. Game and Watch casually grabbed Mario's plate and poured the leftovers onto his own, where he then began chowing down.

"What do you suppose that was all about?" asked Pit curiously. His question was more directed at Ike and Samus, but Meta Knight sat by with his eyes closed looking like he was contemplating something.

"I'm not sure," replied Samus. "But from the sound of it, it can't be good."

"You don't suppose…" mumbled Ike as he and the bounty huntress made eye contact with each other. Both of their eyes widened upon the realization that they were thinking the exact same thing, and that thing in particular definitely had to do with a certain Ylissean princess. The two Smashers got up from the table, not even bothering to finish whatever food they had left in front of them.

"Do not be too hasty," said Meta Knight, putting his hand up. "The answer you seek may appear sooner than you think."

"What?"

"It's my fault!" shouted a familiar voice from behind. Samus felt a scrawny hand grab her leg, causing her to flinch on contact. The Smashers all turned to see Olimar standing on the chair next to Samus' seat and holding onto her limb, pulling her away from wherever she was trying to go.

"Olimar, let go of me!" she replied, breaking free from the small man's grasp, but Olimar didn't seem fazed at all. He began shaking his fists anxiously, as if he was thinking about unleashing a secret he had been keeping for far too long.

"I should have done something!" he cried. "I could have saved him! But no, I had to sit back and play bystander like I always do!"

"Could have saved who?" asked Ike. "Olimar, what are you talking about?"

"Captain Falcon!" exclaimed the short man. "He took the Dream Tap!"

Ike and Samus glanced at each other uneasily, while Meta Knight simply nodded his head. Meanwhile, Pit had a nervous expression on his face as Olimar began explaining what happened last night at Wario's bar, albeit frantically. The Smashers soon learned exactly where Falcon had been during the night of the party, but his reasons for doing so were still unknown to them. Game and Watch was content with eating, but took the time to listen to what the spaceman had to say anyways. It wasn't until after Olimar had finished telling his story that the Smashers realized R.O.B.'s sudden appearance in the dining room was related to Falcon's mysterious disappearance yesterday.

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><p>By the time Lucina had awoken, cleaned up, reapplied her bandages, and pulled on the spare set of blue armor the Waddle Dees had delivered to her after the second encounter, Captain Falcon had already been delivered from his room to the hospital wing. She had accidentally left another trail of blood in her room, but she was more thankful by the fact that Grima had somehow missed her vitals when he stabbed her in the dream world. She was able to patch herself up thanks to an emergency vulnerary she kept in her cabinet, but the pain would still make itself apparent if she made any sudden movements. She did her best to remain inconspicuous however, and was gracious to see the Duck Hunt Duo still snoozing in the hallway at 11:30 in the morning. Unbeknownst to most of the Smashers, Duck Hunt actually consisted of three characters, the third one in particular being a seemingly invisible sniper that neither spoke nor interacted with any of the other Smashers unless it was during combat. Had she been aware of this, she may have maneuvered with a little more caution. With Captain Falcon's helmet tucked under her arm, she made her way to his room only to find a group of Waddle Dees cleaning up his mess of a place. This in itself was not an unusual sight as Falcon was one of the few Smashers notorious for keeping an untidy room. The small servants were kind enough to point Lucina in the right direction, informing her that the man she sought had been relocated to a more secure and hospitable room. She began speed-walking in the direction of the mansion's hospital wing, silently praying that she wouldn't run into any other Smashers for fear that they would question her about something for whatever reason. She was just hoping that Falcon was alright, but ultimately, she dreaded the thought of Master Hand confronting her one last time about this issue. With her sword taken away and a temporary suspension from the tournament, there was no telling what insane punishment that hand would throw upon her next. Maybe he would move her room to a doghouse outside? Or perhaps she would have to go three weeks without dinner? The more she thought about it, the more she realized how different Master Hand had been acting since the start of the nightmarish happenings, but Falcon's safety was still her top priority this morning.<p>

As she swiftly rounded a corner, she immediately bumped right into a certain Homs boy who was making his way to the training room for some practice. Of course, the two Smashers ended up colliding with each other in the halls, and the next thing either one of them knew, both of them had been knocked clean off their feet and onto their butts. Lucina bit her tongue to hold back the stinging pain of the sword wound in her torso.

"Beg pardon, Shulk," said Lucina hastily as she pulled herself to her feet.

Shulk didn't even have any time to react before the princess had offered her hand to him and helped him up.

"Oh, Lucina," he said, a bit of a surprised expression on his face. "I was looking for you. What's the rush all of a sudden? And why do you have Captain Falcon's helmet?"

"I'm sorry, I have no time to explain," she replied, drifting past him and continuing on her course.

"Hey wait, hold on a second!" Shulk quickly grabbed her wrist to stop her from going, but the princess aggressively pulled free from his grasp. "Lucina…"

"Please, forgive me."

She began leaving again, this time increasing her footsteps, but Shulk was a persistent fellow. He soon found himself speed-walking at the same pace as her, although it was kind of awkward because he had to keep checking ahead to insure he wasn't running into something while talking to her.

"Do you mind filling me in here?" he asked seriously. "Did something happen last night?"

"Yes," she replied, figuring that if he was going to stick with her, he may as well be updated on the situation. "I had another nightmare."

The two swiftly darted past a pair of Waddle Dees who were dusting some vases, almost knocking them over along with the plants.

"What was it this time?"

"It…" Lucina paused, recalling the horrifying image of her father stabbing her with his own sword. She had to remember that it wasn't Chrom who had been standing with her in that field, but the one creature that she feared the most in her days growing up. Not to mention, every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was Captain Falcon standing there, slamming the door on her face. "…It was what I had feared this whole time. I need to find Robin and Captain Falcon."

"Was Captain Falcon not in his room?"

"He wasn't, but I think I know where he might be."

The two Smashers continued on their trek to the hospital wing, passing by a few other Smashers along the way who were either chatting or playing. Little Mac didn't get so much as a "Good morning" from either Shulk or Lucina, but he shrugged it off and was back to punching the living daylights out of a sandbag. At one point, Sonic had actually jogged alongside them asking if they were having a race (multiple times) and wanted to see if he could join. Of course, the Ylissean and the Homs had no choice but to dismiss this idea. When they passed King Dedede, he had tossed a bouncing Gordo their way in order to get back at Lucina for snubbing him during the party, but thankfully the two Smashers were quick enough to outrun the thing. The spikey ball ended up colliding with a Waddle Dee who was setting up new wallpaper on a stepladder, promptly knocking it over and causing it to tear off a large portion of the wall. Master Hand wasn't going to be happy about that.

Eventually, the pair made it to their destination. Without any further hesitation, Shulk opened the door to Robin's hospital room (rather forcefully for some reason), causing the young mage to look up at attention from the book he was reading.

"Thanks for knocking," he said sarcastically, slamming his book shut with a single motion from his hand.

"Sorry, got kind of carried away there," replied Shulk as he rubbed the back of his head.

Lucina noticed that the other bed in the room was now occupied by a certain helmetless F-Zero racer, who was sound asleep beneath warm and white blankets.

"Captain Falcon…" she said quietly, making her way over to his bed. She set the helmet down on his nightstand and put a hand over his forehead. He was still warm, his breathing was slow and consistent. She couldn't help but notice however that the racer had a peculiar lined scar going across his left eye.

"They brought him in just this morning," said Robin from his bed. "He seemed alright to me; he's just out cold is all."

"And what about you?" asked Shulk.

"Me? I'm surprisingly fine. I don't know any healing spells, but the magic coursing through my body has multiplied my recovery rate tenfold. Dr. Mario was actually at a loss for words when he found out this morning since he was certain my condition was worse in its initial stages. I'll be happy when I can finally be rid of this hospital gown. More importantly, Lucina, how was your sleep last night?"

The Ylissean princess didn't seem to notice Robin's question as she was too preoccupied staring at Falcon. She couldn't comprehend what could cause the racer to fall into such a deep slumber. Did he die in her dream? Or was he still alive somehow, trapped in an inescapable prison? And on that note, she was all the more puzzled as to how Falcon had stumbled upon her dream in the first place. Regardless of what she was thinking, it still agitated Robin how she was ignoring him in favor of the clumsy Blue Falcon pilot, so the tactician found himself raising his voice a bit in order to get her attention.

"Lucina!"

Lucina glanced up at the mage with a look that resembled a teenager who had been caught trespassing on private property. She promptly took her hand away from Falcon's head and rounded the bed in order to reach Robin on the other side of the room, Shulk also standing by.

"Forgive me, Robin," she said, shaking her head. "It was a long day for me yesterday. I'm a little out of it this morning."

"So I heard," replied the mage, raising an eyebrow slightly. He gave a short glance towards the Homs, realizing that as long as Shulk was there, he wouldn't be able to continue his intimate conversation with Lucina from the other day. "From the sound it, I'd say you had a pretty good time at that party."

"We wish you could have come," said Shulk positively.

"No matter," said the tactician. "Parties aren't really my thing anyways. I made the best of a bad situation here by myself in the hospital wing." He lightly gestured to the book on his lap. "Did they play my song for you?"

"Oh yes, they did," replied Lucina, trying her best to conjure up a smile. "It was beautiful. Thank you so much for requesting that for me."

"Think nothing of it; it was the least I could do in order to help lift your spirit." He glanced over at the Smasher in the other bed before turning back to his two companions. "Now, do you mind telling me why Falcon is not feeling his usual rambunctious self today?"

Lucina was hesitant to respond as the images from the fifth encounter began replaying themselves in her head again. There was so much to talk about, but she didn't really know where to begin.

"I suppose it goes without saying," she began, "that I had another bad dream last night."

She then started telling the tale (from what she could recollect anyway) of how the fifth encounter went. She recalled falling asleep and waking up in some kind of blank void, with not a single soul around her. It was there where she found her father, who brought her on a journey to the past to when she was a little girl training on a ranch in Ylisse. Chrom had made mentions to her about how her emotions affected the course of the dreams, explaining that it was because of her supportive friends that he was able to contact her in her time of need. The warm meeting didn't last long however, before Captain Falcon showed up and Chrom swiftly turned against her with his own blade. Grima revealed himself as the true entity behind the nightmares and promptly summoned a hoard of Risen to attack the two Smashers. In a valiant effort, Falcon had tossed Lucina's crippled body into the rundown shack of a building, where she then found herself back in reality. Falcon's body may have been fine sleeping in the real world, but there was no telling where his mind had gone after the encounter with the Risen.

As she finished the last of her story, Robin could only sit and stare in disbelief. Never in his life would he have expected the fell dragon to resurrect itself (especially not after the dragon had supposedly been defeated at the hands of him and Chrom previously). He didn't understand why Grima would choose to come back now of all times, especially when Ylisse was an entirely different realm from where they currently were.

"So you're certain that it was Grima?" asked the mage curiously.

"I'm positive," replied Lucina. "Grima has returned, and he is using my dreams as a vessel of sorts. I'm also sure that it was him who summoned those horrifying creatures in my nightmares this past week."

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt," said Shulk all of a sudden. "But who exactly is this Grima?"

Robin took a deep breath, remembering the fear and tragedy that the fell dragon had unleashed on the kingdom back in his Shepherd days (which honestly wasn't even that long ago).

"Grima is the bringer of death in our realm," he explained. "Legend tells of a great king who took up the exalted blade and banished Grima and his minions into oblivion. Marth is supposedly the king who led our ancestors into that battle, but if you were to ask him about it now, he would have no recollection of such a thing. Anyways, it is written that the fell dragon cannot be awakened unless a specific ritual is performed. If Grima truly has returned, then that can only mean that someone has brought him back using a force of great darkness. And… if the dragon resides within Lucina's head like she is saying, then that means someone here must have awakened him. Once he has been awakened, Grima has full control over his body and powers, but right now he seems to be in some sort of premature state… well according to Lucina."

"That is correct," she replied. "I have a feeling that Grima is not at full power yet. He is leeching off of my own body, using my doubts and fears as a source of his energy. This is why I think he is the one responsible for spawning those creatures in my dreams, as a way of instilling fear in me and distorting my emotions."

"I see…" mumbled Shulk as he pondered on the situation. "Oh, that reminds me. I meant to tell you this morning that I had another vision last night."

"You did?"

"Yes, but it was… a little foggy. You were in it though, Lucina, as well as Captain Falcon. I… couldn't tell what you two were doing from the angle I was at though."

Lucina felt her face heat up a bit as he said those last words, causing Robin's ear to twitch ever so slightly. Talking about Falcon like that almost made her embarrassed in front of Robin. It wasn't like the two Smashers _had_ anything special together, unlike the swordswoman and the tactician. Still, Robin wasn't too pleased with the way Shulk described his vision.

"Could you be a little more specific, Shulk?" asked the young mage.

"Oh no, that's quite alright," insisted Lucina hastily. "We should focus on the problem at hand here."

"That's it," said Shulk dismissively. "I couldn't tell where you were or anything. It was too dark to see."

Too dark to see, huh? Yeah, Robin was starting to get that agitated feeling all over again.

"When will the vision take place?" asked the mage straightforwardly as he sat up.

"Who's to say that it could?" interjected the swordswoman. "Surely Shulk's visions don't come true all of the time."

"Well, they usually do," replied the Homs boy with a laugh, causing Lucina to give Robin an uneasy glance. "In any case, that's all I saw. I found it kind of peculiar anyway since the Monado only grants me visions whenever an important—usually life-changing—event takes pla-"

"Good morning, Smashers," said a familiar voice from the room entrance. The three friends turned in the direction of the voice to see Master Hand casually float into the room. Lucina immediately braced herself, for fear that the hand was going to go off on another one of his tangents. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"G-Good morning, sir," replied Lucina hastily. "And no, please don't worry about it."

"Good morning," chimed Shulk and Robin in unison.

The large hand carelessly maneuvered past Falcon's bed, giving the racer a quick glance before facing the three Smashers. The problem with talking to Master Hand was that it was nearly impossible for anyone to tell what he was thinking unless he spoke first. This of course, usually led to some awkward conversation starters when Smasher would mistake him for being either happy, sad, or angry. In any case, it was usually a smarter idea to let him break the ice.

"I'm going to be straight to the point with you three," he said seriously, "even though this was supposed to be directed at Lucina."

His sudden change in tone immediately took the three friends off guard completely. Not only was Master Hand pissed off with the girl, but he didn't even try to get the other Smashers to leave the room. This likely meant that whatever he was about to tell them was going to be relayed to the other Smashers in the mansion at some point eventually. Lucina was just nervous because she had directly gone against Master Hand's will to stay in her room until further notice. Not only that, but the Smashers had recently thrown a giant party for her, which she was fairly certain he had been knocked out cold during for some reason.

"May I say something in my defense beforehand?" asked Lucina hopefully.

"Huh. You don't even know what I'm about to say," replied the hand casually.

"I have a feeling."

"Smashers, there are a number of problems that have recently made themselves known during the course of this tournament. First of all, Lucina and Robin, both of you have been suspended from the tournament, but now it looks like we have a third member joining that 'club.'" The hand gestured towards Falcon, who was still sleeping soundly in the nearby bed. "A little birdie told me that Captain Falcon had fallen victim to a mischievous drug known as the 'Dream Tap.' For those of you who don't know, Dream Tap is and forever shall be a forbidden substance on the mansion property. The details about what the drug does are of no concern to you. All you and the other Smashers need to know is that Captain Falcon will be out for a long while. This brings me to my second point. Apparently, some troublemakers thought it would be a good idea to slip some Dream Tap in my tea so that I wouldn't notice your little party. Lucina, you had been ordered to stay away from all of the Smashers until a cure for your sickness could be determined."

"I've told you before, I am not sick," she interjected seriously. "And I am not crazy. The fact that Captain Falcon is lying there in that state should be proof enough that something supernatural is occurring with my dreams." She took a step forward and raised a fist in front of her chest. "I've just learned the true meaning behind these nightmares last night. If I could just have my sword-"

"Please let me finish," said the hand, making a "stop" sign with his body.

"Sir, I can assure you she is telling the truth," interrupted Robin. "If you won't believe her, then believe me or any of the other residents in this mansion when I say that Lucina is innocent and she has done nothing wrong to sabotage the tournament or harm her friends."

"To go against regulations," continued the hand, tapping his fingers in midair. "That is something I simply cannot have. Even Crazy Hand has been disciplined for the chaotic mess he caused in the ballroom yesterday." This "punishment" likely included cataloguing the Items or Trophies in one way or another. "Thus, in order to ensure that this loss of control does not happen again, all of you are going to have to be punished."

"You're serious!?" replied Shulk, almost in disbelief. Truth be told, neither Robin nor Lucina could believe it either. Master Hand had been known for going over the deep end from time to time, but this was starting to get ridiculous.

"The tournament is to be placed on suspension until further notice. From this day forward, the stages will be shut down and become unusable. As such, all scheduled matches from here on in will be put to a halt and resumed once everyone is back into the fighting spirit. Maybe then you will think twice before crossing me."

"Shut down?..." muttered Lucina disheartened. Now she was beginning to feel guilty all over again. First her friends, now the entire tournament was going on suspension all because of a series of unfortunate events that she honestly had no way of controlling.

"You're insane," said Robin all of a sudden. "You're willing to close down the tournament and have the company lose money all on account of the Smashers trying to enjoy themselves?"

"It's not that simple," replied Master Hand calmly. "I cannot afford to have you all running around like sugar-high children. This is a corporation, and in a corporation there must be order. Whether you like it or not is no concern of mine. You all have the luxury of living here in the mansion, free of all expenses and pampered to your hearts' content. The least you could do is follow the rules every once in a while."

"This isn't fair at all," retorted Shulk. "You're only doing this because of what happened to Captain Falcon!"

"Hold everything," said the hand, again, making the halting gesture. "Captain Falcon's problem is something unique on its own. He partook in a substance that is banned on the premises, a substance that is so dangerous it can easily cause death if one isn't careful. I thought we had gotten rid of all traces of the drug after the Brawl tournament, but it seems that misfit Wario has brought them back somehow. In any case, if I catch any one of you ingesting the Dream Tap, you will permanently be disqualified from the tournament and all other future tournaments in the Super Smash Brothers. Do I make myself clear?"

"Don't do this," replied Lucina seriously. "Not to them at least. If you are going to punish anyone, then it should be me."

"Lucina!" said Robin.

"All of the events Master Hand described involve me at the very core," she continued, ignoring the mage's plea. "Nightmares, parties, Robin and Captain Falcon's conditions. I have had a direct influence on all of these. But honestly, there should be no reason to punish anyone in the first place. Master Hand, how is it that for an all-seeing being, you yourself fail to realize there are bigger things at stake here than the tournament?"

Of course, she was referring to Grima's return, but the hand didn't seem fazed at all by her protest.

"Do not mistake me from being a cruel leader," said Master Hand calmly.

"Could have fooled me…" muttered Robin.

"I am willing to accept the thought that you, Lucina, are not responsible for the strange happenings these past few nights. You see yourself as the victim, yet you refuse to concur with my methods of protecting you."

"You are not protecting me," she said through gritted teeth. "You are condemning me."

"Be as that may seem, it doesn't look like I can sway your opinion of me anymore. Thus, I have concluded that the only way to regain your trust is to return what rightfully belongs to you."

The hand snapped his fingers, and in an instance, Lucina's Falchion appeared before her, emanating a glowing aura about it. Lucina stared at the blade somewhat mesmerized, but confused all the same as to why the hand would offer her something he had previously tried so hard to take away from her.

"Is this?..." she stuttered.

"Your sword," replied the hand. "Seeing as how you would rather face your problems on your own, you might as well do it as a swordsman."

"I never said that," she said, taking the blade by the hilt and feeling its weight. "But thank you."

"Don't thank him," spat Robin with a shake of his head. "These new rules he's imposing are utterly ridiculous."

"What are we supposed to do now with the tournament on hold?" asked Shulk seriously.

"Make yourselves busy I suppose," replied Master Hand nonchalantly. "In any case, the tournament will not resume unless Lucina, Robin, and Captain Falcon are back on their feet and able to fight. I pray that nothing else will happen to any of the other Smashers while this is going on as well."

With that, the hand turned around and promptly headed out of the room. Chances are he was going to spread the unfortunate word about the tournament to the other Smashers, but it still bothered Shulk how he didn't have the decency to say good-bye. It seemed that Lucina wasn't the only one going through hard times.

"Can you believe him?" asked Robin, although the question came out more as a statement. "Honestly, putting a stop to the tournament just because of a party? I've never heard of anything so childish!"

"I don't know what to make of it," replied Shulk dismissively. "Had I known _this_ was the way he acted around company assets, I never would have signed up for this. He put on a good mask back at the interview."

"He's not like this though. That's not what I heard from the veteran fighters anyway."

"Maybe he's starting to lose his touch?"

"Maybe… What do you think Lucina?" Robin glanced up at the girl who had her back turned to him. "Lucina?"

But she didn't respond; she was too busy staring at her reflection in the blade of her Falchion. The swordswoman hadn't really taken a notice of it before in the morning (or any of the other mornings for that matter), but for some reason the color in the blade made some of the markings on her face really stand out. More specifically, she noticed that she still had that cut along her cheek that she received from the monster that attacked her during the first encounter. The cut had been opened and she was starting to bleed again.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> This chapter was kind of meh to me, but it's hard to make important plot elements fun, especially when things are supposed to be… you know, serious.

Now, a quick update for followers of this story: Unfortunately, this chapter may be the last one I post for the month of December. If I can find the time, I will try to write and post the next one soon, but the problem is that I have final exams coming up this week, plus a contest to organize. And then after this week, I'm not going to have any time to type new chapters. So if you don't hear from me for a while, don't fret because it just means I'm busy! I'll still poke my head around in the archives and read and review stories, but between life and the Christmas contest, I probably won't be able to get another chapter of this story out until January. I will be able to reply to private messages though, so don't be afraid to send any if you must for whatever reason.

Finally, I have updated the poll on my profile to something specifically pertaining to this story. I know a lot of people have been asking what pairing I'm going for with this (there's really only two obvious ones here) and I'm honestly _still_ on the fence about the whole thing. A good portion of readers are coming from the Fire Emblem fanbase, thus I'm seeing a lot of votes going towards Robin and Lucina's cause. A part of me wants to try for the Falcina relationship though just because I don't believe it's ever been done before (correct me if I'm wrong). So as you can see, I've left enough buildup over the course of the past few chapters to leave the door open for either pairing to come through in the end. Do you have any good reasons for why one pairing should triumph over the other? Feel free to share. I do my best to reply to every review I get anyways so these discussions can always lead to some interesting results. And even if you have any general thoughts on what you think about the story so far, just shout it out! This may be the last time you hear from me for three weeks anyways. Thanks for reading and I'll catch you in the new year!


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